EVERYONE is born in charge of his or her life. But very few people do anything about it.
And that brings me to the point of today's post.
One of the important moments in your life is the one where you realize you can't go on like you are right now.
Some people are lucky and see the danger before landing in it. Others, like me, only get to this point when we've sunk to a certain depth and realize we're not willing to sink deeper.
For some people, this depth is addiction. For me, it was a depression lurking not so far off.
In fact, I think a lot of you will sense a sort of depression in your lives. Even when I was "content", that depression was coming my way. But I'd lulled myself into a false sense of security and paid for it about a year and a half into my university course.
And here's the reason.
Contentment isn't happiness. It isn't joy. And settling for contentment is not okay. Yes, it feels fine in the beginning. But it's not. Contentment is like quicksand. And before you know it, you'll look around and wonder what on earth happened to your life.
And that is when you arrive.
Because unless you know you have a problem, you'll never start looking for a solution.
Before I close off, I just want to let you know that this series will be Christo-centric, since I believe that it's impossible to take charge of one's life without plenty of divine guidance. I know I'd still be at the bottom of that hole without it.
So I'll be ending each of these posts with a prayer that you can pray. Or not. It's fully your choice. But the fact is, I refuse to take full credit for where my life is now, and telling you that you can do this on your own is a lie.
Prayer
Lord,
I can't take this any more. I can't sit here and know that my life is going to waste because I'm not doing anything with it.
Please help me find my way out of this mire of my own creation and to live my life the way You intended for me to live it.
I pray that You guide me on this road. Help me to be strong as I walk along it, and let my life be to Your glory.
I ask this in Jesus's name,
Amen.
25 comments:
Great, another challenge :) my third year too!
Without the Lord, Misha, Betty knows she would be completely lost.
Great work, thanks for sharing!
Enjoy the challenge, Misha!
I'm glad I found your blog. I loved this, and needed to read it this morning. Great prayer, I said it three times outloud. Thank you again, looking forward to keeping up with your posts during the a-z challenge.
Best of luck with your third year!
Haha same here. I can't imagine my life without the Lord guiding me every single step of the day.
:-)
I'm thrilled to hear that my post has had meaning to you, Megan. Keeping you in my prayers.
Nice! Love your style and attitude, as I fully agree.
a great start to the challenge; taking charge of life is made easy with god's healing touch. nice post misha :)
I love this Misha-- I too am on a spiritual journey with my writing. I'm very much looking forward to your take on the challenge-- thanks for being brave and sharing your heart.
Contentment isn't happiness
That says it all for me right there. Great post! :)
Thanks! Glad you enjoyed the post. :-)
Thanks Priya. Glad you liked it. :-)
Thanks, Julie. Praying for you and your writing.
Thanks DL! Glad you enjoyed the post. :-)
Beautiful prayer, Misha. May God continue to bless your growth in contentment. There is no better place than resting in Him. God bless, Maria at Delight Directed Living
I agree that "Contentment is not happiness". I have made that mistake before in my life.
Though as an Atheist I do come at more self-actualization from a completely different point of view.
Looking forward to seeing what you do all month.
--
Tim Brannan
The Other Side and The Witch
Red Sonja: She-Devil with a Sword
The Freedom of Nonbelief
Thank you, Maria!
Completely understandable.
I won't argue and say that I had nothing to do with my own self-actualization. It's just that I didn't do it alone.
Either way, I'm glad you stopped by and left a comment. :-)
I don't think happiness is a good destination goal...
It's not.
It's a journey.
And it's a damn sight better than staying on one's ass for lack of a better thing to aim for.
Sorry if this is harsh, but there's absolutely nothing wrong with going after a happy, fulfilled life.
And I'm sick and tired of people trying to discourage others with the above sort of attitude.
Although it's just Andrew's opinion, I see it as a problem that lies underneath a lot of people's inaction. They don't want to try being happier, because happiness shouldn't be the end goal.
Well sorry. It's not. Happiness is only the beginning. Once you get there, that's when your life really starts. And people censoring others for trying to be happier means that a lot of people won't ever get the opportunity to really live.
Well, no, that's not really what I meant. I meant when people -try- to be happy, they usually fail. That whole "if I only had x, y, and z, then I would be happy" thing. They get those things and find they are still not happy. It creates this whole uphill cycle of never being happy and constant disappointment.
Happiness should be the byproduct of whatever it is you're doing. Like, say, writing. Writing and creating makes me happy, but the happiness is not the goal. The writing and creating is the goal. Doing it makes happiness.
I'm sorry. I misunderstood.
I agree with what you said 100%, which will become apparent as the series progresses. This isn't a series about chasing happiness like the treasure at the end of the rainbow. Instead, it's about doing things that add meaning to your life and getting happiness from that.
I just approach it from this angle because I started realizing the need to change my life because I was desperately unhappy. It's one of the big symptoms of just floating in your circumstances, I think.
And when I read your comment, I just saw red because it looked a lot like what people said when I said I was going to change the way I live.
So please accept my sincere apology.
You seem very focused and that is an art in itself! Complacency is always a problem too, just getting comfortable and letting things slide, and BOOM! um, oops? Sliding in here on the A-Z. Happy blogging!
A challenge within the challenge? Nice. I'd never looked at contentment from this perspective. I'll have to ponder on it a spell.
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