HEATHER HOPES: The Opportunity of a Lifetime

By HEATHER CATHLEEN COX
Special to the NEWS

Heather Cathleen Cox

Heather Cathleen Cox

People are insatiable.

You can provide a hungry person with the money to purchase food today, but tomorrow, the person will be hungry again. You can give someone all the love you’ve got to offer—more than you can afford—and they’ll need love again. You can teach someone all you know, yet the person will still be able to know more. So forth.

The same can be said of happiness. You have felt happy once, I would assume, but that feeling didn’t last. After it fled, you wanted it again. Such is life. And what is the cause, if not insatiability?

There are no magic words I or anyone else can write, speak, sing or preach that will solve your problems. It is in utter disbelief that I pose the following question: We spend our dollars on shrinks and quacks, we spend our hours before priests and bishops, we spend our lives seeking and questing but for what? To one day die without having figured out life, without having sorted our lives neatly and our affairs completely.

Why don’t more people discuss the magnitude of choices and decisions made today, at this moment? Did you realize you were making choices at this very second?

At this precise moment, even as you’re reading these words, you are being afforded the opportunity to decide whether or not to: go home and make your home lovely; kiss your spouse; be kind to your coworkers; apologize to your friend; call your grandparent; re-arrange your life’s priorities; find the faith you’ve been postponing; etc. You also have this moment to: hold onto a grudge; complain about your living situation; harbor resentment; live a lifestyle that only brings despair; lie to yourself and others; cheat and kill yourself with discontent; perpetuate worry, quarrels and gossip.

The meaning of unhappiness is not to be found by analyzing the world, politics, religion, family, friends, schools, finances, upbringing, or anything else external. If you’re unhappy, today, the thing to analyze is yourself.

The effects of resistance to change are long-lasting, and sugar-coating this truth has never nor will it in the future help anyone. If you are unhappy, yet you resist the changes that would otherwise lead to a more pleasant existence, your unhappiness is your own choice. Enlisting folks to pluck you out of unhappiness is a fruitless effort.

The first key to understanding happiness is to understand you’ve got to help yourself. The next step is to do something different today than you did yesterday. Make a positive change in your character. Make amends for a hateful thing you’ve done. Pick up the Holy Bible. Visit a widow. Volunteer at a homeless shelter. Foster a child. Do something that matters. Stop thinking only about yourself. Fall on your face before the God of the Universe and ask Him to show you a better way of living. Ask God for a grateful heart, for lips to praise Him and for eyes to see everything He’s already done for you.

Romans 8:28 says, “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.” In my Bible, the word his is written in italics. This asserts the fact that good things are only promised when those of us who seek God’s will utilize it to promote His calling on our lives.

If you don’t know God’s will, may I suggest asking Him this very second? Luke 11:9-10 says, “And I say unto you, Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you. For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.”

My friend, there is not some elusive secret to happiness on earth. Happiness is not a prize reserved for the elites and nobles. If that were true, why would so many of the affluent, wealthy and famous folks on earth be addicted to drugs and alcohol, and why would so many spiral out of control and/or take their own lives?

No, the true secret to happiness is that there’s no secret. When, with a pure heart and pure motive, you ask God for direction, He’ll give it. If you do what He instructs, you’ll gain what’s better referred to as a life well-lived.

 

Permanent link to this article: https://www.sbnewspaper.com/2014/09/12/heather-hopes-the-opportunity-of-a-lifetime/

5 comments

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    • Anony Mouse on September 17, 2014 at 8:30 pm
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    Click HERE to see and listen who George Michael is…

    If you CLICK HERE, it will “Wake Me You Up Before You Go-Go”

    I proposed to my future wife at one of George Michael’s concert in Chicago. She said NO but the concert was great!

      • Howard Johnson on September 18, 2014 at 7:03 pm
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      Who is St Michael?

    • Howard Johnson on September 16, 2014 at 7:11 pm
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    Who is George Michael?

    • teacher on September 15, 2014 at 6:55 pm
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    I love your article. Your message is so insightful and touching. God Bless You!

    1. Thank you! He does all the time! God bless you, also! =)

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