I cannot find words to describe the reality I faced on this beautiful
day of our Lord’s nativity. A day I’ve spent almost three decades of my life
celebrating with relaxed anticipation for a new year, love permeating my
soul, and even more recently, with future thoughts of embarking on a journey to start my own family with
the most dedicated lady I knew in the world. Such was not the case this year.
It was a day spent doing house chores, reading books, mediating on a new blog
series and “mourning” for the perfection of those things which had become
imperfect in my life and in the life of many around me. I remember dreaming of spending
this day in a distant plateau enjoying the cold weather, with temperatures
aspiring to those of winter in the temperate climates of the world, preparing a lovely Christmas dinner with love, incarnate in flesh and blood as
the reality of a woman, strong and true, and with a smile that brightens up my day. It is one thing to have a dream yet another to make a plan to live out your
dream and make it into a reality. I guess a man can only dare to dream. I had
no family to laugh with, no food to feast on, and no lover to hug and dream
with. It's easy to assume I had no Christmas.
As I looked back at those plans, a darkness, pitch black as night, began
to fall on my soul. I seemed alone. Had I become lonely? Certainly not! The
more the darkness found ways to penetrate into this new fortress of joy I had
created for myself, the more I frustrated its efforts. I was alone but I
definitely wasn’t lonely. I had come to an understanding that it would take
more than the lack of people around me and a lack of material things such as
food to take away my happiness. You see, Attitude is Everything, and we have a
choice to have a positive or negative attitude. It is your responsibility to choose
to take charge of your life or allow life to take charge of you. I can tell you
from experience that self-doubt is Satan’s biggest tool used in destroying the destinies of many. Having the right attitude towards
everything can help you overcome self-doubt, low self-esteem and even vices
such as pride, envy and anger. Being disciplined on developing the right
attitude would catapult you up and above all of the seven vices as you begin to
radiate love that would serve as stitches which would fix the fabrics of human
hearts torn apart by Satan and his minions.
If we assign a numerical value to each alphabet (1-26), ATTITUDE will
equal 100%. It makes good sense to me that attitude is enough to be great in
life. However, we Christians have been called to be more than great. We have
been called to be heroic in our lives and in the different ways we spread God’s
love, mercy and goodness around us. This is why our Lord gave us a sermon about
the right attitudes we need to exhibit in the 5th chapter of St. Matthews Gospel. They are the
blueprints for becoming super heroes in our communities, however large or small
they may be. The eight proclamations are known as the BEATITUDES. The term
beatitude comes from the Latin word beātitūdō which means “happiness”. Our Lord proclaimed that
those who practiced any of the eight beatitudes were fortunate or, to put it
better, He proclaimed them to be in a state of happiness or blessedness.
It is better to understand the sermon of the mount as Christ affirming that
these people are already blessed as opposed to the popular understanding that
they would be blessed. With this mindset on understanding the realities that
they already possess, I indulge you all to follow me on my journey through the
Beatitudes and see how we can live out this heroic life of happiness that
cannot be shaken by anything the world can throw at us. Remember that, as Christians, we have accepted a call to be Sons in the Son, Lights in the world and
salts of the earth, and that call urges us to live heroic lives and build super
attitudes that would make each of us a "Man of Steel" ( O! How I love that movie... Lol!) whose happiness, or blessedness, is unshakable.
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year in Advance!
If ATTITUDE will equal 100%, remain assured that
living out the BEATITUDES will equal being 106%.
This is deep yet positive love it
ReplyDeleteJust awesome
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