Love God, Embrace Beauty, Live Life To The Fullest
Abandon your plans of escape and be where you are.
Plant gardens. Live and live well. I don't know what your planting gardens may look like, but let me end by providing a glimpse of what they might be like..
Live. And live well. Breathe. Breathe in and breathe deeply.
Be present. Do not be past. Do not be future.
Be now.
On a crystal clear, breezy 75-degree day, roll down the windows and feel the wind against your skin. Feel the warmth of the sun. If you run, then allow those first few breaths on a cool autumn day to freeze your lungs, and do not just be alarmed, be alive. Get knee-deep in a novel and lose track of time. If you bike, pedal hard...
And if you crash, then crash well.
Feel the satisfaction of a job well done.
A paper well written, a project thoroughly completed, a play well performed.
If you must wipe the snot from your 3-year-old's nose, don't be disgusted if the Kleenex didn't catch it all because soon he'll be wiping his own.
If you've recently experienced loss, then grieve.
And grieve well.
At the table with friends and family, laugh. If you're eating and laughing at the same time, then you might as well laugh until you puke.
And if you eat, then smell. The aromas are not impediments to your day. Steak on the grill, coffee beans freshly ground, cookies in the oven.
And taste. Taste every ounce of flavor. Taste every ounce of friendship. Taste every ounce of life.
Because-it-is-most-definitely-a-gift.
- Kyle Lake, Final Sermon, 30 October 2005
Questions
“Love God” doesn’t require a belief and is perhaps the most natural and most difficult thing we can ever do in our lives.
What is your sense and experience of this invitation?
Rohr would say, “Everything is Christ-soaked.” Embracing beauty is opening ourselves to experience the diversity of life and allowing the natural rhythm of life to seep into us little by little so we can feel what is essential, which is only now — wherever we may be — needing nothing because we already possess everything. This is the Kingdom of God — may it be within you so you can see that it’s all around you.
What experience comes to mind when you think of “embracing beauty?”
“Live Life to the Fullest” isn’t another demand on your life but an affirmation of the goodness of “blessed are the poor” and the fullness of Love present with the lowly.
How might this view of this phrase reshape how we experience “live to the fullest?”
