Complaining

So how about this weather huh? If I hear one more person complain that it is too hot I am going to lose it. It was too cold a few months ago, and it is too wet, or too dry, or too meh no matter what day it is. It seems that there is nothing more normal than complaining about the weather.

In general, even, complaining seems to be taking over as the normal way of being. I do not know how many of you are on Social Media platforms such as Facebook or Twitter; but I have noticed a sharp rise in the amount of complaining people do. If it is not the weather someone is complaining about work, or about the behaviour of friends, or the government.

Some of these complaints, even all of these complaints, may be valid. By that I mean to say that the particulars may be true, that the weather may be hot or that your friends may have acted dumb… but the real question is what is it doing to you to complain all the time.

Taking a global look at it the Bible starts with this story of the creation of plants, animals, sun moon and stars, even human beings; and each time the thing is made, they are declared to be “good.” So from this perspective everything that is part of the created order is good already, so who are we to complain about it?

But even more so, I see the entire ministry of Jesus as being about bringing abundant life to people. It was about teaching us to live in a loving grateful way that realized just how blessed we are.  In fact he would take the people that most people felt were outsiders and remind them that their lives had value – he would look at the rich people and remind them to feel blessed.

And he taught it is simple traditional ways too, saying grace before a meal, or praying at the end of the day to say thank you.

See, I really feel that attitude is everything when it comes to life. I suspect that part of what Sunday school, church, the Bible, Jesus and the whole lot of them were trying to instill in me was an attitude shift… one towards good news, towards gratefulness, towards love, towards happiness.

One of the traditional mantras of Buddhism is that all of life is suffering. You may have heard that before. But the thing is we westerners take that the wrong way. Sure, life is suffering because there is always pain… but the idea of Buddhism is to rise above the suffering, to detach one’s self from the suffering, and to come to know peace.

I see religious teaching whether we are talking Islamic, Buddhist, or Christian as being a sort of “yes, but” reaction to the world. Yes, there are always going to be things wrong, but there are always going to be second chances, and things that make up for it.

And again, what matters is attitude. David played music and danced when he was happy, Jesus went to parties and ate and drank with friends over good conversation, the apostles went out fishing together when they were bored. All of them seized the opportunities to get the best out of the situation, and they had fun, they enjoyed life, and lived it.

At one point Jesus says, so the record says, “I came that you might have life, and have it abundantly.” So the real question is how are you celebrating the abundance of your life?

Happiness

Faith Today - Moncton Times and Transcript - May 11 2013

All of my life has been a search for happiness.

That may sound simple enough, and true enough, that is covers most of us, right? I mean who of us does not want to be happy?

I even categorize this as the chief aim of my religious quest. I feel that Jesus came so that we might have life, and have it abundantly. And that means sucking the marrow out of life. So I have tried to always be eating in new restaurants, always travelling, always setting off on new adventures in search of happiness.

I pretty much have felt that this was the meaning of life.

Then someone wisely said to me, in one of those glum moments when I was feeling sorry for myself, that I am never going to find it.

“What?” I screamed, “of course I will, how dare you tell me I cannot be happy!” to which the reply came, but when these things make you happy, what happens when they stop?

When… they… stop? What happens when the lobster dinner is over, when the sun has set on the beach, when the night in the hotel is over, when the basketball game ends? Do you feel happy? And the answer, for me, honestly, is that I do not. I was happy while doing it, but that feeling is tied to the activity, to the action, to the moment.

Maybe you all know this. I feel like I should have got it long before I did. But the point of life is abundance; it is fulfillment; it is joy… which is not the same as happiness.

In the very first pages of the Bible we are reading about the concept of joy. God makes all these things, so the story goes, and each creation brings a sense of joy, of completeness. At the end of the day, with the feet up on the coffee table, God says, “This is good!”

So much so that morning brings a chance to do it all again!

When Jesus was talking about Abundant Life, I now understand that he was not talking about hang gliding and beach vacations. He was talking about a sense of joy and fulfillment that lasts. One of the main reasons I go to church is that I have always thought the teachings of religion, the ideas Jesus had on living, would make me happy. Turns out I was right, but wrong in so many ways.

So here is the secret… what we need to do is to turn it around, things do not bring happiness, we need to find happiness in things.

Just do not tell the advertising people this. There are billions of dollars being spent to convince you that happiness is found in a new car, a new rug, a new flavour of chocolate bar…

Well, what if it is the other way around. If you go looking for happiness, for joy, in everything you do, you will find it. This is approach I am working on. So I go for a walk in the sunshine and look for birds singing, I sit and stare at the falling rain and listen to the music, I eat a meal and taste every bite…

In other words, I am convinced that the world, as God said, is GOOD! And I go trying to find the good in everything. It is not easy, and there are certainly days and things that happen that bring back the depression I constantly fight against.

But I am no longer looking for the one thing that will finally make me happy. I realize nothing ever will. Happiness is something I was created with, and I need first to find it within me. 

Maybe we all can.