First Steps – May 3, 2021

The other day while cleaning out some folders, I found this piece from Living on the Ragged Edge by Chuck Swindoll.

“Are you enjoying life now, or have you put all that on hold? For most people, life has become a grim marathon of misery, an endurance test full of frowns, whines, groans, and sighs. And perhaps that explains why so many who were once close to them have a tendency to drift away. Can you think of anyone who would rather spend a lot of time with those who have stopped enjoying life? They’d probably rather invest their hours in a pet, an animal that can’t even talk, than in someone who resembles a depressing, dark rain cloud.

In his work Leaves of Grass, Walt Whitman confessed that was true of him:
I think I could turn and live with animals, they are so placid and self-contained.
I stand and look at them along and long.
They do not sweat or whine about their condition.
They do not lie awake in the dark and weep for their sins,
They do not make me sick discussing their duty to God,
Not one is dissatisfied, not one is demented with the mania of owning things,
Not one kneels to another, nor to his kind that lived thousands of years ago,
Not one is respectable or unhappy over the whole earth.

Maybe that explains the little bumper sticker, ‘Have you hugged your horse today?’ That used to make me smile; now I understand. Sometimes it’s easier to hug a horse than it is to stay close to another person. When you get next to a horse, it never says, ‘Man, have I had a rotten day!’ or ‘I’m depressed today.’ So, if we don’t want to drive others away with our groans and moans, we need to learn how to enjoy life.”

“Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need and thank him for all he has done.” – Philippians 4:6