“You either move towards something you love or away from something you fear. The first expands. The second constricts.”
~Tom Crum
Love is one of the most powerful forces on earth.
That’s what I believe!
That’s why it’s the opening sentence of My Philosophy on Love.
I continued:
Love enables people to follow their dreams against all odds. Love gives people the inner strength to work through terrible disasters. Love is the mighty glue that binds a couple as they build a life together.
I believe love is what gives meaning and purpose to a life.
I define Love as doing things I love, with people I love, in places I love. One of the fastest ways to improve your Happy is to stop doing things or hanging out with people or in places that make you feel bad… a feeling that is the opposite of love. I’ve learned to even stop doing “good” things that make me feel bad. If I’ve taken up a new practice to build my capacity but I find that I don’t like doing it, then I’ll stop and try something else I can do to build up that particular capacity. For example: if you hate running, try hiking. If you hate meditating, try reading spiritual books. I am always trying to move towards Love because Love knows where my Happy is.
And you may be aware that I love to teach (okay maybe I love to preach to) others to pay attention to what inspires them. And the reason I love doing it is that I know what inspires you is touching something truly important inside you. In your heart. Deep within your soul. Paying attention to what inspires you is how you discover the people, places, and things that you love.
But I don’t just teach and preach it. No! I live it, too. I’m constantly paying attention to what inspires me. And the what keeps changing over time because I’m also changing… over time.
And lately, I’ve been truly inspired by Cowboys and Christians. I’ve been discovering that I love Cowboys and Christians because I’m realizing they make me feel good inside.
Let me begin with how Christianity unexpectedly began influencing my life lately.
A part of my morning routine includes sitting in my Relax Sauna for seventeen and a half minutes while listening to bible stories on the www.pray.com app. I didn’t always listen to pray.com. In the past, I’d listen to the news, but I was getting tired of having to open the sauna to reach my phone and fast-forward through the commercials. So, I searched for a good podcast that was inspiring and commercial free. I wasn’t looking for Christianity, it found me. And it found me in a most surprising form, that of Darth Vader (James Earl Jones) reading the Bible to me on the Pray app. It was awesome. I’d never read the Bible, not ever in my entire life. By the time Darth Vader had read me the entire Bible, I was hooked. I searched for more content on the app and discovered the Jesus Calling Podcast. I’m still listening to it. There are hundreds of episodes and they are amazing, uplifting, inspiring! I discovered the incomparable Gordon Mote while listening to the podcast. He was a guest for one episode and was simply brilliant. I was so impressed with him that I tracked down his music and I’ve been listening to his piano hymns during my morning reading hours ever since.
I love it!
My middle daughter had been away at a boarding school for the past year getting caught up in her academics, graduating from high school (on time), getting accepted and enrolled into college, and getting baptized as a Christian. Upon her return home, I helped her find a church and we started attending every Sunday together. We felt very lucky to discover Grace Point Church and Pastor Chris Dortch. He is masterful, motivating, magnificent.
I love it!
So, ever since that first morning when Darth Vader spoke… “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth,” Christianity has quite unexpectedly and very powerfully been influencing my life more and more with each passing day. I’ve added daily devotionals from the Jesus Calling app. They are short but mighty bursts of God’s Word written like Jesus himself is talking directly to me. It’s the very first thing I do every morning.
I love it!
All of it—from Pray.com to Darth Vader to the Jesus Calling Podcast and Gordon Mote to Grace Point Church and the Jesus Calling devotional app—all of these things make me feel good inside, inspire me to become more, and point me towards what gives meaning and purpose to my life.
In other words, the more I move towards all these Christian things, the more they help me focus on loving God and loving others.
And what could expand my life more than that?
Stay tuned for part two of Cowboys and Christians to find out how country-western music has slowly but surely been seeping into my life and making this happy man even happy-er.
I’m wishing you all the Happy in life that you can possibly imagine…
With love,
If you’re struggling to find your Happy in life, then our eCourse could be just the thing for you. The Philosophy of YOU and Your (inspired!) Life was specifically designed to help you create the space and confidence you need to become self-inspired… to discover your true, authentic self, in spirit… and to achieve your own greatness in life, as you define it. In eight weeks, we’ll help you develop the philosophy of YOU and your inspired life and never look back. That’s my promise to you.
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