Faith Venture

Ever think that someone else is “over there” having a lot of fun and you’re left out? I bet most of us had those feelings at least once during our adolescent years. I did.

Was it true? Did you ever get “over there” and discover that there really wasn’t much going on?

This reading I’ve been doing on ethical principles landed on the principle of contentment. The author cites a Chinese proverb that says, “People in the West are always getting ready to live.” The saying sounds a little suspicious to me as far as origin, but the thought is interesting.

We could be content in living the life we’re living and not so much worried about what other people are doing.

Last Friday I led a Yoga class with a group of about 20 kids ranging in age from perhaps 7 to 14. These are “disadvantaged” kids. They were all worried  about another kid. “He’s not doing it.” “She’s not paying attention.” My response–let’s just pay attention to ourselves and not worry about them.

Then I thought, what a good phrase to bring into my life. Make sure my life is right with God first. Or as Jesus said, why worry about the speck in someone else’s eye when you have a log in yours.

Maybe somewhere else the sun is shining (or in our case, since we’re in the midst of a drought, somewhere else they have rain). But I can live contented where I am with what I have. And if a new opportunity for learning, growth or service is presented to me by God, then I am prepared to take that next step.

Oh, those Yoga kids… At the end of the class, I had them sitting cross-legged on the ground. Trying to teach them to find a safe place in their imagination to go when they get upset–to calm down before acting. Imagine 20 restless kids on summer break sitting outside in the sun quiet for about 6 minutes. It was amazing.

This entry was posted on July 18, 2012 at 8:25 am and is filed under Disciplines, Ethics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.