“To journey for the sake of saving our own lives is little by little to cease to live in any sense that really matters, even to ourselves, because it is only be journeying for the world’s sake – even when the world bores and sickens and scares you half to death – that little by little we start to come alive.”
- Frederick Beuchner
I get really tired of artists that cling to “their” territory. When will we learn that we are traveling with those around us, not competing against them? When will we learn to celebrate someone else’s win rather than envying it? When will we acknowledge that God’s apparent moving on another person’s behalf is not something to be jealous of but rather something to encourage us? At least it shows us evidence that God is moving! At least it shows us there are good things happening in a world so often polluted with strife.
We just celebrated Zoe’s birthday, and a couple of Zoe’s siblings were having a hard time being happy for her because it wasn’t fair that they wouldn’t get presents. I had to remind them that their birthday would come. They would get their own day, but today was Zoe’s day and we weren’t going to squash her joy by demanding our fair share.
I want to be a writer that celebrates another friend’s book deal. I want to be an artist that applauds someone else’s creation. I want to quit envying the wealth in the lives of others and ask instead what I can learn from them. I don’t want to be so focused on what I want that I entirely miss asking about what others want and helping them figure out how to get it.
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Yep, I feel the same way Mandy…..I don’t want to be small or petty…..because that’s what I would then attract!