Life’s a gift. Living is no picnic. Death? Enigmatic!
Which is better? It depends, on questing hearts
On positions and possessions, tangible and eternal.
Life is like a walk, each day like putting a leg out:
I can look back and see my footmarks on yesterday
I can look down and see where I’m standing today
But tomorrow, I neither know until it is here
Nor where my next step will land until I take it
Life’s like romance that must be guarded and guided
A fairy when the going is merry and faith is stout
A bummer when you hit a downer and fear revives
Life travels no straight lines, it goes high and low
Here and there, every now and then or sometimes
Forever on a spot. Though some strain to restrain it
To their wants but life heeds not wishes, life goes
Wherever it pleases, with the willing and the daring.
Hard have I tried to grasp it, steer it, rein it until
I saw that life is sore when all I seek is to drive it
I tried sitting on the fence but it also dawned
Those too scared, barely scratch the surface of living
Those in a rush crash too soon: each one to his own
Good or bad: such is life. I resolve today, with open
Heart, to see it, embrace it, and live it, like romance:
Savor the sweetness, bear the aches, one day at a time.
How many of us wish we can make our lives what we want it to be; steer it in the way we want, live it just as we like it? O how I wish! And how each and every one of us wishes. Yet, I learned that life cares not for empty wishes. Life is not us, it is not of us. It belongs to the Creator who gives it. So if you have life, it is because it was given to you.
Though given, life is not ours to spend as we wish. There are courses that are pre-determined and no matter how we hate them, we can change nothing about them save our attitude, the way we walk through those paths. No, it is not one of those things we control. All we can have is all we are given. All we can do is within the limits of what we have been given. And we can only have it for as long as it is given.
Most importantly, life is not about us. Sorry to disappoint you but the purpose of life is way greater than you and me and the sum of all our dreams. If anybody understood life, it is Joseph, the 11th son of Jacob. He had the ‘dream life’ until things beyond his control uprooted him from home and everything safe and secure. If anybody had a reason to be sallow for the rest of his life, Joseph did but he chose not to. What we do daily is what we become and what we become, becomes us. Everything that can be taken away was taken from Joseph each time it seemed he made his way up but nothing and nobody could take away that persistent spirit of excellence that stood him out everywhere he went, no matter how low. His attitude set him apart not only in his family, it continued to stand him out in strange lands where he had no referees to stand or speak for him.
Remember the Scripture: “A man’s gift makes room for him, and brings him before great men.” (Proverb 18:16). Joseph’s most valuable gift was a great attitude with which he attended all that came his way. That great attitude his jealous brothers couldn’t kill, trafficking, lust, lies, injustice, prison, even the ingratitude and forgetfulness of those he helped couldn’t steal from him. It kept him going, growing from grace to grace until his dream became reality and the very ones who despised him couldn’t but bow to that once-upon-a-time-little-dreamer-boy. And guess what? Joseph understood that irrespective of what happened in the past, what the present is or what comes in the future, life is more than him and his brothers and their attitudes just like it is more than you and me and all the odds against us. It is this understanding that separates victors and victims, avenger and preservers, destiny destroyers and helpers.
Life is not a picnic. Its challenges are countless, daring our faith and courage. Nevertheless, it is left to us, to choose what we make of the events that turn up, unrequested and often unwanted, at our doors. The wise learn to take the good and the bad and make the most of each. Let the life of Joseph encourage and inspire us today as we face the things and people beyond our control in ways and with what we can control. May the wisdom that preserved him as he persevered, guard and guide our hearts to attend the numerous calls of life the best we can until our own dreams become reality. Amen.
Glory!