If you don't love your life you won't live your life!

Sometimes the simple hits me as so profound.  I was in a meeting recently where a leader was discussing how to teach adults.  He was discussing issues related to the Bible and he said this: "If you don't love the Christian life, you won't live the Christian life."

I was not able to get that statement out of my head.  Think about this comment and see if it applies to you in your life, regardless of whether you are a Christian or not. 

" I really wanted to do___, but I knew that I should do ____, and so I did it." 

Here is the feeling that invokes.  I am not doing what I want to do, I am doing what I am supposed to do, and it is a big sacrifice for me so be proud of me!  We help each other through the misery of doing what we think we are supposed to do each day, while inside we are fantasizing about how good life could be if we really did what we wanted to do.  I would wager you have friends that stay in a job they hate, so that they can "provide for their family".  Meanwhile their mind drifts to what they wish they could do, or even worse drifts to an unhealthy lust of something they think they cannot have.  How many affairs have started over a perception of sacrifice in real life, so the person thinks they deserve something for themselves.

We create this puritan view of life where we are miserable but proud.  The victory over rules that is supposed to make us free instead is missed by our need to be a rules follower.  I told my college Bible Study that if they are wanting to go to an R rated movie, really want to go badly, but instead take the martyr point of view of how much they are sacrificing not going, then go!  Sit there and see if you feel like it is the right place to be, then stay or leave as you feel is right.  But don't create a resentment of your Christian life by hating having to give up all the "good stuff".

In the movie "The Rookie", Dennis Quaid's character is torn between his feeling that he is supposed to be a baseball player, and the feelings of obligation to provide for his family as a teacher.  His father tells him, sometimes you have to give up what you want to do in order to do what you are supposed to do.  Quit being a dreamer!  Fortunately for the movie, he doesn't take that advice and is successful with his dream, and in the process provides for his family.  Is there sacrifice in the short term?  Certainly.  Is it worth it?  Well you never know if you don't try.

As my family makes the sacrifices to allow me to follow my dream to build a business of helping others, I see both the pain of the sacrifice, and the freedom from guilt that no longer manifests itself at the end of the day when I come home too downtrodden to be a contributing part of family life.  I would trade today's poor happiness for yesterday's comfortable misery any day!

This doesn't just apply to jobs, but to life in general.  If you don't love your life you won't live it. You will just exist beside it, watching it burn away day after day.  What is it you need to do to love your life?

As I conclude this, consider the following.  Are there healthy desires?  Can you actually feel drawn to something and that be a leading to something good and important that you should consider?  Can you be led?  Are you too burned out to feel anything hopeful?  I certainly hope not.