Day 142f: Forgetting where we already Are … (September 18, 2019)
So many are so concerned with where they might well go after they die that they completely forget where they already are while they’re still alive …
“In the end, the number of prayers we say for ourselves might well contribute slightly to our overall sense of happiness, and yet it is only the number of prayers we answer for others that can ever bring us real Peace & lasting Joy … And it is not merely the friendliest others for whom those prayers need be answered, but rather those neighbors more prickly & tight-hearted. For indeed, if we could all make our neighbors up, we could love them easily in but a minute. We could make them in our own image, and have them ever looking back at us with deep gratitude for how authentically human we are being towards them — and them to us. We could be reading poetry to each other, or admiring pictures of each other’s grandchildren, or taking casseroles to each other when we are sick. And yet nine times out of ten these are not the neighbors we get. Instead, we get neighbors who cancel our votes, or burn trash in their yards, or shoot guns so close by that we have to wear an orange vest whenever walking to the mailbox. These are the neighbors we did not make up – those who knock on our front door to insistently offer us the latest issue of The Watchtower or place piously judgmental sayings on their church signs that make me embarrassed for all Christians everywhere. These are the neighbors who text while they drive or flip me off when I pass their expensive pickup trucks on the right, and this in spite of the silvered fish symbols glued to their shiny rear bumpers. These are the neighbors we get more often than not, and – quite ironically – these are the neighbors we have all been called to love most dearly, for they are the neighbors who so obviously need our love the most.” ~ inspired by Dieter Uchtdorf & Barbara B. Taylor
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