Driven to Live

From what quarter of the universe do we derive the drive to perform at the top of our game? From deep within? From another dimension altogether? Both/And.
The forces that compel us to press hard and press forward are not all healthy ones, but we do not have the luxury of clearing out all dross before getting out of bed each morning. We can but fix our eyes on the prize that draws us ahead. We engage with our hopes and dreams in the context of our sufferings and circumstances, and don't look back. We trust because our intentions are good that whatever immaturities and brokenness we bring to the journey will be transformed into something new, beautiful and beneficial along the way.
And so back to the original question. From where does the drive to engage fully and participate in life unreservedly come?

Hoping for Happiness?

Hope is different than happiness. Obvious?
Not necessarily. We tend to confuse the expected effects of hope with happiness. That somehow to believe that, at the end of the story, all will be well, should result in an upbeat mood for me here in the middle of the story.
Instead of either hope or happiness we get a strange (and frequently irresponsible) reinterpretation of what is transpiring here in the middle of the story. Our part of the story. We either want pain and evil vanquished, and take up arms to that end. The casualties of our righteous hostility lie scattered across the battlefield of our moral crusades. Or we pretend that pain and evil have already been vanquished and any remnant is but a gift from God to test our faith and enhance our characters. What response is there but docile and unquestioning gratitude?
But if pain and evil are harsh realities here in our part of the story (whether or not their ultimate doom is guaranteed), then included in my discipleship responsibilities is a thoughtful, intentional and lifelong response.
I can neither ignore nor be consumed by all that is wrong.
Hope makes it possible for me, in the midst of and in spite of my harsh reality, to function within it and to act creatively to counter it. If my energy is not wasted on denying or demonizing, it can be directed toward healing and restoring. Toward creating a tomorrow more reflective of the reign of the good and just God. The hope that comes from knowing the end of the story sustains and nourishes my spirit in the face of the seemingly insurmountable odds that we face in the middle of the story. Whether or not I find moments of happiness along the way, I give all of myself to living a full and meaningful life because I have hope.

Help Self Help

I find it intriguing that our culture is so smitten with self-improvement efforts. Especially given how slowly people change. I guess I'm admitting I'm old enough to have some experience with the pace of self change.
Intriguing and irrational, but hopeful nonetheless. Despair would be worse. Resignation or fatalism.
No, for all the difficulties involved, I'm glad we err on the side of trying to become healthier and healthier. It speaks to an inner plumb line somewhere within that knows something is amiss. More significantly, it recognizes, even if only dimly, a beauty and fullness that seems to belong to us. If only we could reach a bit further and lay hold of it.
And so we reach. Most all of us reach. I head off into my day now to do some reaching.

Learning Again

I'm reading The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell, and I must say I am quite intrigued. As a person passionate about the implementation of new ideas, the insights regarding how word-of-mouth epidemics spread is fascinating. And since the ideas with which I'm currently working are my own, I can hardly put the book down. We'll wait to consider the implications to my business plan, but it seems there will be quite a few. It's refreshing for a constant reader like myself to come across something so personally pertinent.

I Wish, or Do I?

Sometimes I wish certain things about work or life were different than they are. All well and good, unless if I believe my best chance for experiencing change is to continue with the wishing.
I have a mug imprinted with the Gandhi quote, "Be the change you wish for wish for the world." Be it. Do it.
Maybe the difference between wishing and hoping is that wishing is passive while hope participates. Wishing desires everything to change around us. Hope lives as though the change has already taken place.
Such a distinction begs the question, "How then do I live?" If you looked at my choices, would you know what sort of world I am hoping for?

Challenge and Remind

Pausing to be present with my words. To sit among them and let them dance around me. To watch as new worlds emerge and melt away. New ideas challenge the very underpinnings of reality and then remind me that love has always been the answer. New adventures, old lessons. New territory, old terrain.

Too Cautious?

The visor successfully deflected the glare, but at what expense? We protect ourselves from one danger and blind ourselves to the next. Smothered in an overprotective blanket of cautions and precautions, we lose some of the agility that walking through the minefield demanded. We give ourselves an exhaustive list of all the things at which we should not look, and our attention is filled, but not as we had intended. Avoiding one thing is not necessarily embracing another. What fills the void?