R.A.D.I.C.A.L. Thoughts

“Think of all the beauty that is still left in and around you and be happy.”
~Anne Frank
Happiness is such an elusive thing. When you are going through a midlife divorce, you worry that you will never really be happy again. I know I worried about that. I thought I might be able to get through life until I died, and that I would find some joy here and there; but I thought that I would never have the free, full joy of heart that I had come to expect from life. I thought that I had suffered too many losses to ever have much joy again. But then I read something from Anne Frank or some other human being like me who has risen above the circumstances, and I am encouraged. And because I believe in God and his promises, I can, like Anne Frank learn to get beyond the surface of life. I can get beyond having my happiness tied to what is going on around me. My joy then comes from trusting in the Wisdom and Power of God and in being able to still find all the “beauty that is still left in and around” me, and when I do that, happiness finds me on its own. When I obey God to the point that I put all the pieces of my life in his hands and into his control, and then just get busy doing what he says … forgive, be patient, love others, enjoy my work, be thankful for my food, notice his beauty … all those simple things, God will bless me. Only then will I be really happy. Happiness is not elusive at all. It is within our reach continually.

“God blesses those who obey him; happy the one who puts his trust in the Lord.”
~Proverbs 16:20