The Fun Of Life

Half of the fun of life is in real­iz­ing that you can­not fully under­stand it. The other half is in know­ing that some­day you will. The Apos­tle Paul’s way of say­ing it was, “Now we see in a mir­ror dimly, but then face to face.” As he aged, he antic­i­pated the half beyond what we expe­ri­ence here. For all of the noble virtues in this life, he looked for­ward to those per­fected ones “above” — surpassing cur­rent human com­pre­hen­sion.
If we knew too much now, we would be crushed by the mag­ni­tude of it all. It is a bless­ing that we see dimly. Too much real­ity can over­whelm us. Sci­en­tific break­throughs only lead us to more ques­tion­ing. The joys con­tinue, but are not com­plete. A glimpse here or there of the big­ger pic­ture keeps us search­ing. Won­der is grounded in earnest quest. Know­ing that we can­not fully know is not dis­cour­ag­ing at all — quite the oppo­site. There is more joy in pur­suit than arrival.
I believe that my dog knows that he is just a dog, and therein lies his con­tent­ment. He is happy to run and play. I think he knows he has to depend on humans for food and health. That depen­dence does not seem to bother him at all. He patiently waits to be fed. Some­how he is happy just to be a dog. I take a cue from that. I know that I am sim­i­larly lim­ited. I have to depend on much more than myself, and I am con­tent to admit that I can­not ful­fill all of my own needs.
The fun of life is in rec­og­niz­ing its lim­i­ta­tions. It has just enough stim­u­la­tion to keep you in motion, but not so much that it totally wears you out. We are blessed by sleep, day­dream­ing, goof­ing off, being air-headed, star­ing at a night sky — just being where we are and who we are. Life is not mas­tered. It is more like a game of chess. You can­not yet arrive. It is fun to play, but there is always more to learn.
Relax. Trust. Expe­ri­ence. Love. Enjoy. Take in the great story as much as you can. There is no sub­sti­tute for it. There is more to come, and it is worth the wait.