If we live long enough, we are almost certainly going to face many hardships and tough times. I’m always saddened when I hear about someone who decided to take their life because something bad happened to them and they thought their life was over. We also see people who get so upset because of something bad that happened to them and they decide to take their frustration out on other people in violent ways. Just look at the recent school shooting in Texas. What brings a person to do that? What we need to do is re-examine the big question – what makes life worth living?
It’s easy to get wrapped up in things that matter to us, but don’t matter in the grand scheme of things. It’s also easy to get upset over relatively unimportant things. I want people to like me, but don’t need everyone to like me to be happy for all eternity. I love my job, but my success or lack of success doesn’t define who I am. What do I want to get out of life and what goals am I currently pursuing? These are two questions that we should periodically ask ourselves. What we need is guidance to show us the way.
The guidance we have available to us is the Holy Spirit. Our Father sends us the Holy Spirit to guide our steps and lead us back to Him. Getting back to God should be everyone’s number one priority and we should orient our lives in such a direction that will best get us to our Father. If someone wanted to head north, they would find a compass very helpful. The Holy Spirit is like a compass that points to the Father. When we do our own thing, we navigate in a direction different than where the compass is pointing. Once we find our way and start heading towards God, we need to remember to stop periodically and get food for our journey.
If the only thing we do is keep walking towards God, we will become weary over time and run out of steam. The journey can be a very long one and we need food and nourishment for our journey. Many people have grown tired over time and are just going through the motions. If we allow ourselves to grow tired, we may stop where we are or give up the journey and start navigating in a direction that our body or other forces lead us.
Food for our journey can come in many forms. Take a spiritual retreat, attend a Bible study, watch an inspirational video, volunteer in our community, play with our kids, and have a heart to heart discussion with our spouse. We tell our kids, they need to eat their vegetables if they want to get big and strong and then we go out in the world without digesting the words of God in the Bible. When we nourish our souls and allow the Holy Spirit to guide us and direct our priorities, we can better make the journey to our Father in Heaven.
