Before I start today’s meditation here is one more about happiness:
“The greater part of our happiness or
misery depends on our dispositions, and not on our circumstances. — Martha Washington
misery depends on our dispositions, and not on our circumstances. — Martha Washington
I remember to this day when my neighbor and best friend in Memphis, Bill Wagner, got a new Schwinn three-speed. My old AMF bike got me anywhere I needed to go — to school, to the dime store, and to my friends’ houses to play baseball, football, basketball, or just to hang out. But a new bike was almost more than I could handle, and to make matters worse my Mom had no sympathy for my unhappiness.
As the Rolling Stones sing “You can’t always get what you want.” Life teaches us that lesson time and time again, and to top it off, one of the Ten Commandments tells you not to even desire what belongs to your neighbor — not his/her spouse, wealth, possessions, or even his/her three-speed Schwinn.
I believe the Thou Shall Not Coveat admonition is one of the hardest to obey. At work, at home, and in life in general we often feel life is unfair — I should have that job, I should be married to that person, I should have a new car, I should not be excluded from everybody else’s party, etc. The list goes on and on.
Perhaps that is why God sent Jesus, the Saints, and the other great religious leaders to this world to constantly remind us that we are looking in the wrong place for happiness. It’s not in things or other people’s opinion. There is no reason to coveat because in what we desire that belongs to another there can be no happiness or satisfaction.
Sometimes I have to tell myself when I feel undervalued, excluded, or jealous that I have God. What more could I need or want — “Absolutely Nothing.”
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