It's hard to be sad when you're being useful. * * * Service to others brings happiness; self-involvement leads to depression, to spiraling questions about the meaning of things. [I forget where and when I found these quotes.]
Although the quote is that service to others brings happiness, I'm not convinced that is wholly true. Service to others as we self-determine that service to be does not bring happiness; it becomes just another item on our 2-DO list. Items on our 2-DO list can and often are moved forward for days, sometimes for weeks...who deliberately drags out our own happiness until it qualifies as a chore?
Service to others brings happiness when we are called to serve, and we answer the call just as it is asked of us. The minute we begin bargaining, it belongs to ego...there is no happiness there, spiritually. There may be "looking good" pride which isn't necessarily awful but it brings no spiritual growth.
Reading that it's hard to be sad when you're being useful brings a mental picture of me being unhappily useful at Spring Cleaning Time with my mother wielding the broom and mop...and, of course, that's not at all what is meant here. But no matter how spiritually useful we're being for whatever God-given reason, if we have a put-upon attitude, old Lucy is driving the tractor. We may not be feeling sad, but happy is nowhere near, either.
Everything depends on our attitude, according to me. Upgrade our attitude, we upgrade our problem. We know that we cannot upgrade our attitude relying on self-will alone. That's where our reasoning mind hits the wall...we must go beyond reason to love.
That is not a one-shot deal. The deal is we upgrade our attitude and maintain that upgraded attitude. I'm guessing that's what pray without ceasing means.
Thank you.
Although the quote is that service to others brings happiness, I'm not convinced that is wholly true. Service to others as we self-determine that service to be does not bring happiness; it becomes just another item on our 2-DO list. Items on our 2-DO list can and often are moved forward for days, sometimes for weeks...who deliberately drags out our own happiness until it qualifies as a chore?
Service to others brings happiness when we are called to serve, and we answer the call just as it is asked of us. The minute we begin bargaining, it belongs to ego...there is no happiness there, spiritually. There may be "looking good" pride which isn't necessarily awful but it brings no spiritual growth.
Reading that it's hard to be sad when you're being useful brings a mental picture of me being unhappily useful at Spring Cleaning Time with my mother wielding the broom and mop...and, of course, that's not at all what is meant here. But no matter how spiritually useful we're being for whatever God-given reason, if we have a put-upon attitude, old Lucy is driving the tractor. We may not be feeling sad, but happy is nowhere near, either.
Everything depends on our attitude, according to me. Upgrade our attitude, we upgrade our problem. We know that we cannot upgrade our attitude relying on self-will alone. That's where our reasoning mind hits the wall...we must go beyond reason to love.
That is not a one-shot deal. The deal is we upgrade our attitude and maintain that upgraded attitude. I'm guessing that's what pray without ceasing means.
Thank you.
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