Life Actually

There is the life you imagined, the life you planned for, worked for, hoped for. looked forward to.  And then, there is the life you actually wound up with, the life of daily grind and failed expectation.  The life where everything goes according to plan is replaced with a life requiring a new plan.  You discover that life is seldom about plan A but often about plan B or C.

You planned on a full life with a supportive mate, you  wound up a single parent whose life is filled with struggles and challenges you never dreamed would be yours.  You looked forward to a retirement of travel and adventure but realized one where the only travel you  do is to the doctor's office or the local pharmacy as you struggle with an illness you never saw coming.  You dreamed of owning a house in the country, you live in a rented trailer in the city.  Life actually doesn't look much life life planned.

So what now?  Now that life has turned out to be anything but what you hoped or dreamed, what now?  Well, what's next is totally up to you.  You can become bitter or better.  You can step up to the plate or step deeper into your pity.  You have an opportunity to lean in upon the Lord, look  for the best your life has to offer and go with it, or lament your lot in life and look for things to complain about.

Jesus said, “The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are healthy, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eyes are unhealthy, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness!" (Matt 6:22-23).  He tells us that we can choose to focus on either the good in our lives or the bad - light or dark.  Our choice does not change our circumstance but rather our outlook and our inner state.  Focusing on the negative darkens our spirit, focusing on the positive brightens it.
2 Corinthians 4:16-18 NIV
[16] Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. [17] For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. [18] 18 So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal. …

Life actually is not actually what our circumstances dictate, it is what we decide, with God's help,  to make of it.  Some of the happiest people I have known have been dealt some of the worst blows in life.  Some of the most miserable I've seen have been given everything on a silver platter.  It isn't what you have but what you perceive that determines your attitude and ultimately your reality.

And, what you perceive is determined on where you are looking: "Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal" (2 Cor 4:16-18).  Jus' Say'n, actually.