The Secret to Happy Living…

Ahh yes, the secret to happy living! Who doesn’t like to talk about happiness? Next to love it is probably the most sought after thing in the whole world. There are principles, keys, theories, ideas, concepts, methods, techniques, habits, plans, all promising the much longed for yet elusive happiness. Life absent happiness is not good. Relationships that have lost their happiness struggle. Working a job that doesn’t make you happy usually ends in a new job. In short, you need to learn how to be happy to really appreciate and enjoy your life. What if I told you there is an often overlooked way to live of which many folks have simply lost track? It’s not complicated and does not need any special circumstances in order to appear. It requires no money, no preparation, no special ability, no superior insight, no good weather and no individual coaching from the mind of an experienced self-development guru. However, it does represent a shift in how most people think. In its basic essence it involves time and how we choose to live in that time. It can only happen now and cannot thrive in any environment that is not called now. The secret to happy living is found in the “now.”

This may surprise you but God intended for human beings to live “in the moment” in their lives. The Creator who invented time is not bound by time. He lives in our past, in our present and in our future all at the same time (pun intended). He is eternal. He always was and always will be. Warning – don’t try to wrap your mind around that one! Our human brains have trouble with concepts like this because we live in a realm where time is a reality. Although we live in a world governed by time, we still can only live in the moment we are in. When we allow our minds to wander away from the moment we are in to some past moment we rob ourselves of the life available to us in the moment. We waste away our days dwelling on the past, usually the negative past. None of us can do anything to change the past. We can’t undo it, redo it or revise it. It is what it is, or I should say was. If you have lived any significant amount of time, I can guarantee you have a thing or two you wished you would not have done or said. The longer you have lived, the more of these thorns in the flesh you have acquired. But, at the end of the day, you are a human being. You were born with the seeds of sin and error in your bloodline. (Thanks Adam and Eve.) You were done before you started if you know what I mean. You were destined to blow it! God of course knew this and provided a way for people to accept the sacrifice of His son and be forever freed from the heavy weight of everything they ever did wrong. He did this so we could finally let all that garbage go. He did it so we could forgive ourselves and move on. He did it so we would not have to live for one more moment stuck in the past; living in the past. You simply cannot live in your past as much as you feel compelled to try. Even children know that when they go astray, as they necessarily must, to seek our forgiveness quickly in order to get on with their happy, in the moment living. The secret to the joy of childhood wasn’t the absence of responsibility, it was their natural propensity towards living in the moment. It’s not until they get older do they learn otherwise. The thief steals your joy for living by getting you to try and live in your past. Even the good, blessed times of your life that happened in the past are still the past. Trying to relive your high school years or any former years just doesn’t work. Relish the memories for sure, but don’t try to live there. How many things in life are spoiled by the thoughts of the past? Relationships suffer because we drag around this huge heavy bucket containing everything “they” ever did wrong to us. We view them through the negative filter of a thousand yesterdays. How can that relationship make any progress at all? Instead of learning and growing as individuals we get stuck on some negative aspect of our personalities or behavior likely shaped many years ago. “I’m not good at this” or “I suck at that” not based on who I am today but instead on who I was when I was 14. Surely you can see the folly in that argument. The secret to happy living is not trying to live in the past.

Another common thief stealing away our joy for living is the future. Like the past, you cannot live in your future. Here’s a fun fact. All worry, all fear, all dread exist only based on the potential future. You can manage the life you live today, but adding in future concerns makes things feel unmanageable. The bible says, “Take no thought (anxious concern) for the morrow (tomorrow) for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.” (Matthew 6:34) In other words, you have enough life to handle in a day without rashly adding in thoughts about any future day. Yet how many of us do this? We literally give our lives over to worry and fear. You and I cannot live in the future. No amount of anxious concern or full blown fear has ever changed anything, nor can it change anything. We can certainly impact our future by what we choose to think and subsequently believe, but even then it can only be accomplished in the day that we are in. Have you ever been at work and left the moment you are in by thinking about when you get off and what you get to do then? When we do this the moment we are in becomes quite miserable and the time slows to a standstill. The remedy was and always will be to bring your mind back to where you are and live in that moment only. Work becomes enjoyable when we put our hearts in it in the moment we are in. All of life functions this way. You have to be present and grounded in the now. How much life and happiness is missed by thoughts centered on some future time? How much fear and worry could you avert by refusing to think about some future day and choosing instead to live now and to let God handle the future. This is God’s remedy for avoiding concern about the future. Live your life today and if something is bothering you, give it over to Him in prayer and get back to the day at hand. I promise you, you can not only manage the day you are in but you can actually thrive in that day! Here is another fun fact. God exists with you also in the moment called now. He sees your past and He knows your future, but He works with you and in you right now. He is an ever present reality now. When you slow down a bit and get back to right now, your life starts to become quite happy and blessed. The secret to happy living is not trying to live in the future.

So, you like me are interested in happiness aren’t you? We could all use more happiness. Well, the secret is found in learning to live now and only in the now. Your life is happening whether you pay attention to it or not. How much have you missed of it by foolishly trying to live in the past or the future? What could you have learned by now by embracing the moment and living fully in it? How much better would your relationship be if you treated each day as a brand new day and refused to consider the past? People change and people grow. None of us are the same person we were twenty years ago. Yet you don’t allow your partner that privilege when you keep them confined to their past. You like a fresh start don’t you? Well they do as well. People talk of boredom and the lack of excitement in their lives. Yet boredom is strengthened by trying to live in other moments. The solution to boredom is to lock back into now. Every day is a brand new opportunity. Every moment is ripe with opportunities and blessings, but you will miss them by staying your mind on the wrong time periods. Live now. This is God’s plan for human beings. He resolved your negative past by the work of His son and guaranteed your future by the hope of eternal glory with Him. All that is left for you to do is live now. Enjoy now. Embrace now. Can you imagine what a great burden will be lifted off your life by choosing to live in the moment you are in only? This is the happiness you had as a child. This is the secret to happy living.

Just some good thoughts…