Well life is officially weird. For about the past month I've been going thru a period in my life where nothing seemed to be going my way and it really put a strain on my faith and it made me really question why I believe as I do. College really does stretch you. I found within me a strength I didn't know I had. I found how beautiful life can be but also how painful. I have come to the conclusion that pain is really really not cool but necessary (sorta like math). If life didn't suck sometimes then the awesome parts of life wouldn't be worth so much. I've also realized that the secret to life is not to try and find happiness in life but to find life thru happiness. Don't look at life as something that's supposed to be happy and joy filled, but look at those happy times as the best part of life and hold them close when the crappy times come.
Cliche as it is I'd like to take this time to share a verse that I believe is a life verse of mine. Ecclesiastes 3:1 "There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven:..."
Many people dislike the book of Ecclesiastes because of it's negative connotations and pessimistic outlook on life. All I can say is that it is a book that looks at life head on and doesn't over look the bad parts (another good verse in Ecclesiastes is found in chapter 12 verse 8 "'Meaningless! Meaningless!' says the Teacher. 'Everything is Meaningless!'") I think that people should look at life more like Solomon did. Don't live life for the good and hate the bad parts in life. Instead realize that life is cyclic and if life is bad right now eventually it will have to get better. It's simply the way of life. Now this is one of those things that doesn't help much when you're feeling depressed and pessimistic but it does help keep yourself balanced.
Ok so now onto what brought this to my mind. Well for the past month or so (incase you haven't been keeping up or incase you can't read very well) I have been going thru a low spot in my life. Finally I'm out of it and now I'm seeing some reason behind it. Which is nice. So yeah that's the reason i'm posting. Sorry I waxed so philisophical.
Bed time =-)
3 comments:
First, I'd like to thank you for the philisophical post, heh. It's nice to see I'm not the only one that does this, though I think I rant a bit more in mine than you do, hehe.
Now, I do agree with part of what you say. It's foolish to expect life to be some overtly wonderful, joyous experience. Life itself is twisted into something it was never intended to be, misery. It's equally arrogant to assume that every experience should be a happy one and that painful moments are abnormalities. However, that's where my agreement ends.
Life is, at least to a point, cyclical, but those cycles do not alternate at the same periods. It's not as though you will have just as many good periods as you will bad periods nor are you assured that those good periods will all be incredibly good or that those bad periods will be incredibly vile. To expect a cycle is practical, but the cycle itself means nothing.
Beyond that, why accept the cycle as is? When a better situation is desirable, certainly when it's possible, are we not to strive for that situation? Accepting the cycle's periods as they come to you is dangerous, as those cycles will continually spiral downward, leaving you with few good periods to even remember. We are to fight to change those cycles so that, instead of using a few, faint good memories to overcome a life otherwise filled with misery, we would have a vast, glorious page of good memories that would completely consume our existence. Thus, we wouldn't need to use the good memories as patches to keep ourselves from bleeding to death but as a feast to keep away even the mere thought of hunger.
Also, the idea of being able to better enjoy good moments because of the cruel nature of the bad moments is fragile, at best. For me, I could be just as happy to only have good moments with someone than to have both good and bad. While I'm sure you can develop your own personal example, my original friendship with Kim was absolutely wonderful and held no flaw whatsoever; I loved those moments. When the darkness settled between us, I didn't love the good times anymore than I did before that time. In fact, I loved them less, because those "good" memories only reminded me of the then current pain and the realization that those 'good' moments were never truely as good as I had thought. Thus, not only did I not appreciate the good moments any greater, I actually appreciated them less. Even if your theory is accurate, it would come with a vicious whiplash. If evil moments have the power to make good moments stronger, than good moments also have the ability to make evil moments stronger in the exact same way.
I realize I'm no spokesman for living a joyous existence. Joy has never been an easy state of mind for me, save for those dillusionary moments long past. However, I have considered the concept for quite some time, particularly because it seems so elusive. My best estimate thus far is that expecting happiness from life itself is ridiculous. Besides the pure unliklihood of the idea, one's focus is drawn to life and self instead of God, the true source of happiness in the first place. While we may still worship Him, we begin to expect life itself to generate our pleasures instead of expecting God to deliver us happiness through Him and His promise of a better life with Him. It also sounds cliche, but, truely, God is the only consitant source of happiness available. As such, I do what I can to focus on Him for my happiness instead of life's simple pleasures. I am happiest when I know I am doing whatever would please Him. Because of that, life is little more to me than a continual chance to prove my love for Him. In a way, it becomes His pleasure that creates my happiness, not anything offered in life, though good times are certainly more desirable than harsh ones, and His pleasure is enough to fuel my existence. It sounds quirky, but this method has kept me faithful, honorable, and alive for all these years.
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well it worked. You can say things as well you don't just have to let me know you're trying to leave a comment.
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