On the way to work, you get a chance encounter with a cousin who just came in behind you in traffic; you’d ordinarily not get to see her but this is the second time in four days and you both get vision of each other. As she travels past there’s a wave and a smile. Voila!
Life’s amazing. With serendipitous delight we see things in our everyday that both bemuse and amaze.
We never know what good (or bad) news is just around the corner, and all we can do is smile as it (whatever “it” is) comes our way.
Yet everything in our experience is reason for praise and to be thrilled for... yes, even the mundane and painful. M. Scott Peck says,
“It is in the giving up of self that human beings can find the most ecstatic and lasting, solid, durable joy of life. And it is death that provides life with all its meaning. This ‘secret’ is the central wisdom of religion.”[1]We might take mundane and routine things more or less for granted, but we can’t do that with the pain that comes into our lives. We must choose one of two ways; get bitter or get better.
And Dr. Peck would tell us that it is infinitely easier in the whole scheme of things to go the ‘better’ way, though it requires more effort, courage, honesty and humility. And, in all reality, it’s never too late to turn from the bitter way to the better way.
One of the best ways to prepare for dealing with the eventual temptations toward bitterness is without doubt to practise on the ordinary and mundane things that happen to us. We do this by elevating them in thankful significance.
And before long we’re behaving in thankfulness all the time and it’s our instinct. It’s our only real protection; our godly responses to things to occur to us. Give it a 90-day trial. It is my experience that you’ll never be disappointed with the results--satisfaction guaranteed.
Copyright © 2009, S. J. Wickham. All Rights Reserved Worldwide.
[1] M. Scott Peck, Wisdom from the Road Less Traveled (Kansas City: Andrews McMeel Publishing / Ariel Books, 2001), p. 64.
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