“All life itself represents a risk, and the more lovingly we live our lives the more risks we take... A full life will be full of pain. The only alternative is not to live fully or not to live at all.”[1]
Far too many of us live ‘safe’ lives, riskless and dour. If part of that might be enshrined in wisdom, equally another part is enshrined in fear that risks taken might threaten our little but large worlds; that which we cherish as part of life--as it exists for us today.
There are so many singles, for instance, who’ve given up on finding love because it means ‘adapting’ to someone (not realising/acknowledging it’s part of God’s purpose for our lives to adapt to people and to mature). It might mean compromising our lofty standards; it means taking a risk with our happiness.
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Nothing ventured, nothing gained. Each day as it passes becomes a sort of Groundhog Day. Things don’t get better, they get worse--and we hide from that reality. We deny it.
It’s equally the same with faith. People who don’t have a good faith, or even a solid faith, meander through life living at half-stride, goaded by measly, novelty-worn material possessions and weak spirituality of chance and ‘good news,’ like following their horoscope, clinging to anything that speaks some sense into their vague experience.
Joy, true peace and real hope, in these above circumstances, don’t get a look-in.
We don’t get if we don’t give. God’s more than happy enough for us to just simply exist. He’ll leave us there for as long as we want, wasting our lives and our opportunities with each turn... sunrise, sunset, day in, day out and so on and so forth.
There’s a better way, of course. Spending ourselves, for instance, reaps us life. We spend ourselves and our time on others in the name of love. The moment we begin to do this we learn the pain of rejection and disappointment, sure, but we also get to experience so much more of the life God always wanted for each one of us. There are so many more positive things in this life that outweigh the negative, hard things.
I recall a friend telling me he’d worked out the meaning to life. It was to smooth out the “ups” and “downs” of life in such a way that there were no ecstatic highs and no depressing lows. I don’t think he was correct. Surely a banal existence like this is the antithesis of real life?
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Surely, a real life is a life where courage is required in the midst of fear; that we aren’t anesthetised and dumbed-down to a numb life.
I leave it to you. I’m in the same spot. All I know is M. Scott Peck’s Wisdom from the Road Less Traveled presents a beautiful, golden and life-giving truth that anyone can tap into.
Do you have a passion, a calling, something you know you were made to do? Are you hungry for love; can you love others? Is there room in your life for growth, and even some hardship on the roadway to success? Are you prepared to transcend everything you’ve ever done before?
It’s your life/it’s mine; your choice and mine. (Let’s) go for it!
Copyright © 2009, S. J. Wickham. All Rights Reserved.
[1] M. Scott Peck, Wisdom from the Road Less Traveled (Kansas City: Andrews McMeel Publishing / Ariel Books, 2001), p. 94-95.
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