“What is important is seldom urgent, and what is urgent is seldom important.”
Dwight Eisenhower
Comfort is king in our land. We urgently rush to preferred pronouns and turn a blind eye to the reality before us to ensure the comfort of the most easily offended among us. We talk of laying out millions of dollars to make people comfortable with a tragic past they never experienced. We hurry to the aid of a corrupt government so some here do not suffer the discomfort of a monetary loss. It’s all so very urgent that we relieve those who feel oppressed, depressed, and stressed.
I read that young people today want us dinosaurs to quit saying, “Life is hard”. Ironically, at the same moment, they wish to be sheltered from life in safe places. Why seek shelter from that which is easy?
Life can be lived in many ways. We decide whether the life we choose enriches us or degrades us as human beings. I am not setting myself up to tell anyone which is which. It is not my place nor is it necessary. There is a voice within us all that tells us that. Call it conditioning, conscience, spirit, or God, it is unerringly accurate when it takes aim at our folly and makes us uncomfortable.
I know life is hard. I know it not because I have gone hungry or wept over my children unjustly suffering want. It is hard because what is important to a good life doesn’t come overnight. It is not handed out to those who feel entitled to it. It goes to those who wrestle with it and come away still standing.
Life requires us to do hard things, things we’d rather not do. It’s not necessarily urgent that we do them, but it is critical that we do them, nonetheless. If we embrace life, it will break us and reduce us to ashes physically, emotionally, and spiritually. It will also lift us up from those ashes stronger and with a clearer vision of what is truly important. Comfort is a by-product of a life of conscience, not the goal of life.
Maranatha
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