stop chasing happiness
God never promises happiness.
He promises peace.
Peace is only found on the path.
It’s not in the results, it’s not when you get there, it’s not for later.
Peace is only available now.
And to achieve it, you must simply put yourself on the path.
Because when you are on the path, you can be confident that you are headed to a better place.
You want comfort, but you need challenge.
You want happiness, but you need peace.
You want validation, but you need truth.
Chasing happiness at the expense of peace and hunting validation in spite of truth.
Justifying your actions by reading that self-help book with everyone else in mind.
Cementing your beliefs by reading your Bible with your judgements intact.
Mind-closed tight while taking the necessary actions to yourself off the hook.
The right actions for the wrong reasons.
Comfort.
It’s why you go to the gym to justify the donut.
Finding comfort because it’s what you seek.
You seek it because you have been told that is the goal — it’s what you are supposed to want.
Society has duped you into thinking that comfort and convenience are the point.
So you neglect to see that what you want is rarely what you need.
It’s upside down and backwards, like everything else in this world.
Comfort is not your friend.
It’s the slow decline of a closed-mind.
You want the comfort.
But the comfort wants you dead.
What you really need is challenge.
Challenge changes everything.
You need some of those thoughts that make you pause….with discomfort.
You squirm and look away because you know it’s true, and you don’t want it to be.
You pause because that’s what you do right before you run.
Instead of running for comfort, sit and ponder it — let it work on you.
Choose those activities that make you anxious to think about.
Anxious because you know it’s going to be difficult.
Anxious because that’s where you typically find your excuse to quit.
But, instead of quitting, you go anyway — you do the work regardless.
You face it and run through it.
The faster and harder you run towards the storm, the quicker you come out the other end.
The mind, and the world, is a battlefield.
Call it a game, if that’s more comfortable for you to swallow.
But recognize it either way.
Society has chosen comfort, money, materials and luxury as our scoreboard.
Like petulant children changing the rules to the game to suit our need for comfort.
But that’s not how it works, and that’s why it all feels so sh*tty.
Comfort it not the goal.
It has never been the goal — it is certainly not the point.
In fact, the more comfortable you are, the less happy you will be.
The less comfortable you are (on purpose), the happier you will be.
Challenge is the path.
Discipline is the walk.
Fortitude is the grit.
Faith is the map.
God will not bring you comfort.
Finding God does not make life easier.
In many ways it makes it harder.
Harder because Truth is challenging.
Trials and tribulations are promised.
In my experience, God is not about lifting the weight and making it easier.
He is about lifting the weight and making it tolerable.
Without the love and grace provided by our Lord, the world will crush you and make your life (and you) miserable.
With the love and grace of our Lord, the world will forge you and make your life (and you) the blessing it was meant to be.
Your purpose lives on the other side of those trials, and He is the only one that can take you there.
Face it, and walk on with Faith + Fortitude.
Linc
“I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”
John 16:33 ESV