The Joy of Indirection

Few things are as frus­trat­ing as try­ing to have fun. Com­part­men­tal­iz­ing your feel­ings — or attempt­ing to — leads to a lot dis­ap­point­ments. Feel­ings are not man­aged as much as they are sim­ply expe­ri­enced. Emo­tions come to us as gifts. We pre­fer some to oth­ers, but if you want to engage your­self in an un-winnable self-war, try to be happy.

True hap­pi­ness hap­pens when you are in a wor­thy pur­suit. Some of my great­est joys were before, dur­ing, and after some really mis­er­able col­lege exams. Addic­tive­ness is the result of try­ing to have the feel­ings with­out the pur­suits. It is an attempt to short-cut the life qual­i­ties sys­tem. Jesus had some unique ways of say­ing it like, “if you lose your life you will find it.” Once you grasp the para­dox­i­cal nature of life itself — includ­ing feel­ings — you will expe­ri­ence a pos­i­tive qual­ity shift.

Some­times the best part of a vaca­tion is what you expe­ri­ence along the way to and from the des­ti­na­tion. For some rea­son, the best con­ver­sa­tions are when two peo­ple are look­ing out of the car win­dow and shar­ing the ride. Emo­tions have lives of their own. Embrac­ing them — how­ever painful — helps them along on their jour­ney. Avoid­ing them turns them into monsters.

Your great­est insights will hap­pen when you are read­ing some­thing that has noth­ing to do with your ques­tions. God is seen only from the cor­ner of one’s “faith eye” in the quest. The call of Moses came when he was hav­ing just another bor­ing day as a shep­herd. One of the prophets of old received his call when he was plow­ing with a team of oxen. One day Simon Peter was fish­ing and an acquain­tance motioned his boat to shore…and it all changed from that moment. Once upon a time I was on my way to an edu­ca­tion and career in electronics…then I sat in on a col­lege Bible class — and here I am 40 years later in a most intrigu­ing life.

Do not worry about being happy today. Just get involved in life some­where along the line — doing some­thing like the dishes or mow­ing the lawn. Be open. Joy is on the way.