Lesson 28 - Happiness and Love

Since my 30 day lessons are coming to an end, I would like to end where I started. The second lesson was "Happiness and Love" and the first was "Forgive and Forget". Because there is three day's left and the last day is "Live and Learn", I will start at lesson two. 

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Within the second lesson, I came to the following conclusion: Courage -> Honesty -> Forgiveness -> Freedom -> Love. In lessons 5 and 6, I went deeper into the thought of love; however, I failed to focus on happiness. I concluded that when one has courage they can not fear being honest. Honesty will, in most cases, enable those who you hurt to forgive you or for you to forgive those who were honest with you. Forgiveness will bring you freedom and freedom will enable you to love those who do not place chains around you. While in the same lesson I said that freedom is the key to happiness; thus, by that logic, you are happy before you love or, at least, while you love. Is this the case though? Those that have courage to be honest normally are and they seem to be the people who don't have chains placed on them. God is the only one who can forgive sins. We can just forgive others for the pain they caused us. Their forgiveness relinquishes our guilt which will make us freer. But the chains would still be there if we don't forgive ourselves for that action and act for forgiveness from God. Then, and only then, are we free from that sin. Still, is my sequence of "events" the real sequence in life?

For some reason, I think it goes more like this:

Courage          ->     Honesty 

                             ↓                ↕

Forgiveness -> Freedom -> Love

Courage can lead to forgiveness, but those who don't have courage can also forgive. Courage will lead to honesty, but honesty doesn't necessarily mean that you are forgiven. You are only forgiven if the one you hindered forgives you and if you ask for Gods forgiveness. Freedom, however, does lead to love just as honesty can lead to love. This is more of what my thought process should have been.

I have the courage to be honest, I forgive those that trespass against me. I know that when there is a wrong done to me, God will avenge me and I don't need to get revenge myself. I know that honesty can be the best way to never feel guilt (thus freedom from that), but it does mean that you will be hated (by those that can't handle the truth). Still we are called to love, feed, and give drink to our enemies and show them love. So the freedom that we have by knowing that God is on our side and that he will avenge us can let us love and do what He commanded us to do. "Love thy neighbor as thyself." While this may seem to be a jumbled mess, there is order in all chaos. That is what the chart is for! Still, there is more to freedom, love, and happiness then meets the eye. 

“The reason people find it so hard to be happy is that they always see the past better than it was, the present worse than it is, and the future less resolved than it will be” -Marcel Pagnol

Happiness can come if we live in the present moment. at the present moment there is nothing wrong. Even as you read this moments are flying by so very quickly. A moment isn't a minute, a second, but rather a fraction of a millisecond. If that is the case, as we are called to live in the here and now, there is absolutely NOTHING wrong in t.t.t.t.t.t.t.... that moment (the moments pass to quickly to type "that" within them). Even if a minute is going by and that minute or hour seems like the worst hour in your life, there is nothing wrong in a moment. If we are happy at any given moment, and we focus on the here and now, then we should be free of all the worry and stress that we place upon ourselves for the future for "we do not know what the future may bring forth". We don't know if I will be dead a moment from now or not. Even if I did, I would see God's face, there is NOTHING wrong with that. If we live in this moment, what isn't to love about it? If we live in the here an now, what aren't we free from? This is easier said than done obviously, but it is possible for "all things are possible through Christ." Because it is possible to live only for the moment and to live the moment to glorify God, we should always have happiness, love, and freedom on our hearts.

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"Cowboy Take Me Away" - Dixie Chicks

I said, "I wanna touch the earth
I wanna break it in my hands
I wanna grow something
Wild and unruly"

I wanna sleep on the hard ground
In the comfort of your arms
On a pillow of blue bonnets
In a blanket made of stars

Oh it sounds good to me

I say, "Cowboy take me away
Fly this girl as high as you can
Into the wild blue"
Set me free oh I pray
Closer to Heaven above and
Closer to you, closer to you

I wanna walk and not run
I wanna skip and not fall
I wanna look at the horizon
And not see a building standing tall

I wanna be the only one
For miles and miles
Except for maybe you
And your simple smile

Oh it sounds good to me
Yes it sounds so good to me

Cowboy take me away
Fly this girl as high as you can
Into the wild blue
Set me free oh I pray
Closer to Heaven above and
Closer to you, closer to you

I said, "I wanna touch the earth
I wanna break it in my hands
I wanna grow something
Wild and unruly"

Oh it sounds so good to me

Cowboy take me away
Fly this girl as high as you can
Into the wild blue
Set me free oh I pray
Closer to Heaven above and
Closer to you, closer to you

Closer to you
Cowboy take me away
Closer to you