Welcome! Welcome! Welcome to "Life Crowns." Friends, have you ever reflected on broken bridges of ease? Ease... I often wonder what "ease" means. Does it mean one kicks back, relaxes, chillaxes, and enjoys life? What does ease sound like? Close your eyes and whisper it to yourself...e-a-s-e... The sound prompts me to relax the muscles, uncurl the toes, even slow down the breathing, take deep breaths etc. So even if we did not check the dictionary, we would know what "ease" means. Also, we know "ease" is not "happiness."
In the midst of our most tumultous experiences, we can access ease by a deliberate mental and spiritual effort to pull back from the problems that arise, the furnaces of anxiety that threaten to burn every shred of peace left in the shadows of life. Without this, life would be impossible. I am as sure of this as I am of the fact that I am sitting here.
But "ease" is not "happiness." Happiness is a dream we pursue. Indeed, Christ can bring us to that reality. The despairing heart says Jesus can do it, but it is still a big dream. A friend once quipped that even the profound words of Thomas Jefferson in the American Declaration of Independence limited us to the "pursuit" of it, not its attainment. The founding father could have declared, "...life, liberty, and happiness" as the inalienable rights, but he chose to stop at the "pursuit of happiness." So happiness itself is a big dream!
I have found that what most people ask for each day is not really happiness, but ease! The ability to exhale after a long day. We want to be able to work hard and hope that even if some of it falls apart, some stays in tact. Some have lived ten, twenty, thirty years before death shakes their bodily frames. Others live a hundred years before they are called to drop their robes of flesh. In all of the time we spend in our journey through earth, what we ask is often not too great; we ask for "ease." But then, bridges of ease are broken, but life still asks us to access ease. The first instinct there is to ask: "Who is out there, playing a cruel game with us?" We wonder how much longer we can take it. The bridges of ease are broken, but we must still get to ease?
After wrestling with the evil of poor choices and bad decisions, humanity stops and starts to repair and rebuild. We do it with earnestness, sincerity, and a genuine (and unrelenting desire!) to stand still no more. I even remember the great statement of a child of God, at least, one century back: "Time becomes an ally of the primitive forces of socio-stagnation." So I work hard in each twenty-four hour cycle, and hope at the end of the day, I can exhale with e-a-s-e.
Transitioning from noon to twilight, humanity prays, "Please God, even if some of our work, our well-considered choices, well-researched decisions crumble, please...please...preserve something of it so at midnight we can exhale with e-a-s-e. All we ask is e-a-s-e." The work you do daily; what you do from minute to minute, whatever your corner of life, is part of a process of building bridges over which you can get from expectations in heart and mind, challenges before you, confrontations in your doings along the way, humiliation in your actions or interactions, all the way to e-a-s-e.
So the question becomes, what does one do when it seems that productive actions taken for a long time are destroyed and a chance at mere "ease" is destroyed? I put ease before peace and happiness. But you always have even a bare thread of your spirit left. Imagine that thread of spirit as if it were something physical that you can grab a hold of. Now, imagine that thread as tied to the wreckage of all your efforts, see those efforts as your broken bridges, then, scream: "I won't ever let go because Jesus has overcome the world!" Now, think: perhaps, the seemingly unrestorable brokeness of bridges is an illusion. We'll pick up here next time.
God bless. We love you. Keep the faith!
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