Pursuit of life liberty and happiness

This piece is another of those written where I felt was going in so many directions, I had to take a step back for fear of losing its purpose.  I believe it’s delay worked in my favor, for many of the conversations and activities participated, tied everything together, in one pretty bow.

Last month, I had the pleasure to share with my family, one of many accomplishments my daughter has successfully achieved in her life.   On this occasion it was acquiring her Masters.  I first give glory to God for watching over her and instilling in her the ability to focus and stay focused while also experiencing the challenges of life.  Understanding now, focus is one of the key ingredients to successfully accomplishing our goals, I have adopted this concept as my mantra, of sought. God created such a strong young woman of whom I am so proud to call my daughter. There were times, though, I was afraid she was focused to a fault. But, because, like her mother, she always stepped back to evaluate her circumstances, concentrating on her intent and actions, I never really have to worry about her character, or her soul for that matter.

All of us, in our journey in life, run the risk of falling short. We learn as we go and grow to be better people.  We may do, or, and say hurtful things to others…. Unconscionable things even, which would be seen as unforgiving. Or perhaps, we may conjure thoughts…, preconceived notions of each other’s intent, which later we find to be wrong, or just not justifiable enough to condemn. But if with God’s grace and our learned lessons (which award grace and to and by others), we then take these lessons learned, and rejoice, knowing no one is expected to get everything right, it is a beautiful freeing experience.  For with acceptance of our faults, we find within ourselves and others, value, and the gracious mercies of God for which we can be grateful.

There are many who strive for success and stop at nothing to achieve what they set out to accomplish.  I’ve heard people say, any association with anyone, other than those who serve a purpose in their life is pointless. Basically, if you can’t support me by way of assisting , contributing, making a mark in helping me, or inciting me to achieve my goals, or higher potential…, if you have no resources which are of value to me, then you are not a necessity in my  life. This of course, is not to be misunderstood with those people in our life, whose only goal, in their own life, is to self-destruct and bring everyone down along with them.  I get it! It’s obvious they are detrimental to our well-being, and we should have the right to choose whether, or not, we should associate with them (unless of course our own mission and purpose is to actually help them). But if while protecting our best interest, we in turn ban people in our life, those who love us and support us in their own crazy way, then what are we doing?  People such as our family, who we should have no choice, but to love. Or our spouses, who we have promised to love for better or worse. It is these people we should hold on to, through thick and thin, despite our twisted notions of them when they get on our nerves.  I mean, isn’t this the purpose of having quirky inconsistencies in our life? If you can’t survive the world according to your family, let me tell you, your chance of surviving the real world according to society are slim to none.

Our purpose should never be more important than the gift of family.  An unconditional love which is so precious and gives us the strength to go the extra mile is not something that should be taken for granted.  We are here to serve each other.  To associate our loved ones to materialistic opportunities is shameful.  As it would, in any association, to anyone, for that matter.  For this would display signs of a society gone wrong.  Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. could not have explained it better when he described how materialism was one of three pitfalls to society. The more we produce, the more we want, which then jeopardies our moral compass to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. With family being the core of our pursuit in life, material advancement should not be center stage. The adrenaline to produce and succeed reveals the junky in us which is difficult to shake. It is as if we never become satisfied with what we have, or where we are, or where we are going in life.  There is no end in what we do, or, how we do it, or who we push aside in order to achieve our goals, while all at the expense of others. There is this perpetual drive to have more. Do more.  To be better than the next person.  If a member of our family is a drug dealer, or a user of such, are we going to disown them because we have no use for him? I know, I know…. many people who do drugs or tend to deal with things of that nature are destructible, in their own right. Untrustworthy even. So maybe this is a bad analogy. I suppose, like Jesus when he was praying for the sick, if your presence conflicts with my mission, then I just as well rather you not be present. But perhaps, better illustrated, if someone close to us were illiterate, would we push them away because they serve no purpose? Or, if they were poor, and, or had no direction in life, would we then shut them out? Even those relationships of an estranged nature, in the end, bear some value if we take the time to repair the rift. What it boils down to is when our selected agendas for the lives of certain people in our life, do not live up to our expectations and they are unable to support the agenda we have selected for them, should we then push them away? If it was, would it not come at a cost of evaluating the people in our lives as steppingstones, or future opportunities for increase…What does this say for our character and the well-being of our soul? Minorities of all kinds have been steppingstones, politically, economically, and socially for forever. But of course, that is another subject all on its own, and one which has proven to be immoral, but, nevertheless still relevant, and very much similar in this respect. Any measure of someone’s worth by a handicap or set back of any nature, whether it be financially, educationally, or social lack thereof, warrants re-evaluation of the direction our soul teeters. If back in 1967, Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. blamed it on scientific power as being the reaper of our souls, what is our excuse today, but that of a continuing saga of our yesterday? In Philippians 2: 3-4, it says, “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interest of the others”.   How different this world would have evolved if we would have lived by this concept. There would be no disparity in regard to society because there would be no measure. There would only be love and acceptance of ourselves and that of others regardless of faults or handicaps. There would be no ridicule, no comparison, no distinction. Just love. And it would be about what we can do for each other, so that we can ALL live pursuing our life, liberties, and happiness together, in harmony, just as Jesus exemplified in his own life.

CWB