As I indicated in my sermon this past week, I shall be continuing my thoughts in the Bulletin about the WAY of living that Jesus taught. To quickly review, I indicated that Jesus taught us how to (1) personalize our worship of God and (2) be mindful. I first shared with you my thoughts on how to personalize worship. There were seven points: (1) come disposed to worship; (2) open your heart and mind to the message God wants to share with you; (3) desire to join yourself with Jesus in worship of God; (4) envision being represented by the symbols of life, that is bread and wine; (5) offer your life to God, as Jesus did, in thanksgiving for the gift of life; (6) believe that God enriches your life by receiving the transformed symbols of life; and (7) leave church determined to try to live more like Jesus.
The second aspect of the WAY I shared was being MINDFUL, that is trying to develop the ATTITUDES that Jesus had. This means transforming our attitudes in seven basic areas: (1) God; (2) Life; (3) Nature/Creation; (4) Religion; (5) Society; (6) Others; and (7) Self.
I would encourage you to read about the stupid and smart ways of thinking about God that I’m sharing in a different article in the Bulletin. A truly stupid way to think about God is that He is about the business of punishing and rewarding the beings that He created in His image and likeness. Why would He do this? Life is not a test to prove that you are worthy to receive a reward! Think about it!
The second set of attitudes that we must think about are those that we have about LIFE. What is life all about? Life is truly not about gaining heaven and avoiding hell! Life is about growing as a spiritual person! The way to discover what your attitudes are about life is to ask yourself this question: What is the meaning and purpose of life? Another stupid attitude about LIFE is that it is UNFAIR. Life is not unfair! We humans are not the ones who have determined the meaning and purpose of life! So why should life conform to our vision of how life should be. Sure we don’t like to be disappointed when life doesn’t turn out the way we would like it to be! Sure we don’t like suffering! If, however, we believe that life delivers the challenges that will help us to spiritually grow, then all that comes in life is good and fair!
One of the big problems, I think, is that we realize, at some basic level, that we don’t have any control over the events of life and we desire control! Solution? Give up desiring to control life and to accept life as it comes to you!
Think about what your attitudes are about life? Challenge yourself!