The Point of All Living

Oh, how we have com­pli­ca­ted our life and our faith.  We have crea­ted and exis­tence of stri­ving and human per­for­mance.  All which ser­ves to frus­trate and dis­cou­rage us.  It is time we slow down review what is truly impor­tant and then learn to “be”.  This means it is okay to not “do”.  You have my per­mis­sion to simply “be”.  It’s okay, the world won’t shift off it’s axis, the sun will still come up in the mor­ning.  Read the follo­wing excerpt from one my my favo­rite authors.

I love watching a herd of hor­ses gra­zing in an open pas­ture, or run­ning free across the wide, sage-covered pla­teaus in Mon­tana. I love hiking in the high country when the wild­flo­wers are blooming—the pur­ple lupine and the Indian paint­brush when it’s tur­ning magenta. I love thun­der clouds, mas­sive ones. My family loves to sit outside on sum­mer nights and watch the light­ning, hear the thun­der as a storm rolls in across Colo­rado. I love water, too—the ocean, streams, lakes, rivers, water­falls, rain. I love jum­ping off high rocks into lakes with my boys. I love old barns, wind­mills, the West. I love vine­yards. I love it when Stasi is loving something, love watching her delight. I love my boys. I love God.

Everything you love is what makes a life worth living. Take a moment…and make a list of all the things you love. Don’t edit your­self; don’t worry about prio­ri­ti­zing or anything of that sort. Simply think of all the things you love. Whether it’s the peo­ple in your life or the things that bring you joy or the pla­ces that are dear to you or your God, you could not love them if you did not have a heart. Loving requi­res a heart alive and awake and free. A life filled with loving is a life most like the one that God lives, which is life as it was meant to be (Eph. 5:1–2).

Of all the things that are requi­red of us in this life, which is the most impor­tant? What is the real point of our exis­tence? Jesus was con­fron­ted with the ques­tion point-blank one day, and he boi­led it all down to two things: loving God and loving others. Do this, he said, and you will find the pur­pose of your life. Everything else will fall into place. Somewhere down inside we know it’s true; we know love is the point. We know if we could truly love, and be loved, and never lose love, we would finally be happy. And is it even pos­si­ble to love without your heart?

(Waking the Dead , 47–48)