Your Happy Place…

This world can be a confusing place at times. Unlike the past, there are endless distractions all clamoring for our time and attention. We have the world at our fingertips with just a few strokes on the keyboard. We have unparalleled access to information and with that information comes a litany of requirements; things we must accomplish; actions we must take in order for everything to be okay. Yet for all of that progress, people still find themselves frazzled, overworked and worn out. Go, go, go! Just do it. Get er’ done! Keep grinding. Strive, accomplish, be successful, work harder, commit yourself, do more, be the best, outwork your competitors, make money, make more money, don’t stop! The message we receive every day is that what we do is never enough. We aren’t allowed to sit down. We don’t have time to relax. There is so much work that still needs to be done. But, at the end of the day, can we still say that we are enjoying our lives? Do we even have time to enjoy our lives? Will our refusal to do something lead to instant poverty and failure? Will life sort of collapse on us if we miss something? This frenetic portrayal of life is not real life. It is a crowded and overworked life. It is life plus distractions; so distracted that we lose track of who we are and what we really wanted to do with our one life. We’re too busy to enjoy things anymore. We need to slow down and smell a few roses as the saying goes. We need the time to think and to consider. We need to find our happy place.

We likely all look back with fondness to the times in our lives when we had space to enjoy things. A time when the demands on our time weren’t so heavy. A time when we had nothing to do but play around. Human beings need time to play around. We need a respite, a refresher, a little place to regroup. We need an environment where we can just be, absent never ending expectations. We need a happy place. Your happy place is likely different than mine. But, what our happy places have in common is that we are happy when we are in them; fully engaged in them. Distractions will no doubt vie for our attention still, yet for the sake of our happiness we tune them out. Life is like that. At times it’s more about tuning things out than tuning in. We need the capacity to let things go, not the things we must do but things that are not our priorities. And no, everything is not our priority. The reason we can’t let anything go is because someone, somewhere convinced us that we are 100% responsible for everything that happens in our lives. We’ve become party of the first part, party of the second part and party of the third part. We fancy ourselves as little self-made creatures that don’t require any help with anything. We think if we strive hard enough and work hard enough all will be well. Yet that is not how life works. There is only so much that you and I can control. There is a limit to our finite understanding. Sometimes we arrive at wit’s end, if you know what I mean. Look around you. Folks are simply stressed out trying to carry a load they were never meant to carry. You will never find and enjoy your happy place by being the “god” of your own life. You don’t have the capacity to take on that job. Instead your life was designed to encompass a complete reliance on God to do for you what you could not do for yourself. When you get God involved with your life, He does for you what you cannot do. He does all the heavy lifting. People work themselves to death trying to maintain their health for fear of diseases and sickness. They work far too many hours trying to prosper for fear of not having enough. They hover over their children in unnatural ways for fear they will miss out on something or worse get injured or killed. There is no happy in all that fear! Your happy place is only possible when God is taking care of you like He promised, and you know it.

The main reason people aren’t enjoying their lives is because of fear. They have no time for relaxation because fear is driving them and subsequently stealing life from them. Fear is a powerful motivator. But fear, like many medications, has some side-effects. You cannot relax when you are afraid. You can’t even consider your happy place because there is just too much to do. Fear requires that you live in a perennial state of stress and anxiety. Fear lies and says you haven’t done enough. But, fear is the liar. Fear knows that once you stop being afraid its power over you ends. Fear knows that life absent fear is real life. When is the last time you woke up in the morning with absolutely no fear about anything in your life? It’s pretty rare. Yet this is the life God wants for us to live. He wants us to learn of Him and see that He is good, always and only. He wants us to acknowledge His power and His ability to fully care for us. He desires that we turn our troubles over to Him and get on with the business of living. He promises to guard our health and heal us when we need it. He promises to bless us with prosperity so that we always have to give. He promises to carefully watch over us and our children, even telling us that He knows the number of hairs on our heads. He can restore, repair, replace, refurbish, re-energize and renew us in every way. With that kind of love and care life becomes our happy place. We no longer need to live stunted and limited lives afraid to try and afraid to accomplish big things. We no longer need to drive ourselves to mental and physical exhaustion trying to do it all ourselves. We do not have to live that way. All we ever really need to do is relinquish our dependence on almighty self and put things back where they belong; where they have always belonged. Your happy place, indeed your happy life is on the other side of fear. But, you will never rid yourself of fear by reading a book (Bible excluded-smile) or by attending the next great self-development conference. Fear has to exit the scene when the light shows up. The light comes from God and is God. Find your happy place again. It’s in the light.

All of us enjoy the happy times in our lives. And, all of us must endure unhappy times as well. That’s how things are, not intended but our reality. Yet we can still live the more abundant life promised to us in the Word. Despite what you may have been taught your happiness is important to God. Isn’t your children’s happiness important to you? With Him it is never too late no matter how far down you may have fallen. The life you seek; the life every person truly seeks is still possible. You don’t have to keep running on that hamster wheel trying to figure it all out yourself. You don’t have to work so hard. Take a little time and ask yourself, is this the life I always wanted to live? Am I happy? Do I even have a happy place anymore? If your answer is no to any of these questions there is still more for you to learn. Don’t give up. Find your happy place again. It’s right there for you if you want it and I know you do. You are worth that much. Your happiness is worth that much. I love you.

Just some good thoughts…