Underneath the obstacle course
Life is not a problem to be solved, it is a gift to be lived.
When life feels like an obstacle course in which I simply move from one challenge to the next in an endless stream it is likely because I am holding onto expectations. I am caught up in expecting something from the moment and the people in it. When my expectations are not met problems arise, and soon enough life itself seems like a series of problems to be solved. It is then pretty easy to fall prey to the illusion that when the next problem is solved everything will be okay or at least better. However, what frequently happens is that one problem gets solved and another one almost immediately appears. If this happens often enough, then one can begin to view life itself as a problem, or series of problems, to be solved. I want to suggest that this happens because I have expectations that the people in my life and the moment itself be other than they and it actually are. If I view life as a problem to be solved it is because I do not accept life and the people in it “as is.”
Letting go of expectations can seem reckless and irresponsible. Who, if not me, will tell the people they are wrong?! Good question. I don’t know. But let me ask this question: How is correcting everyone and living life as a problem to be solved going for you? If you feel more and more loved and loving day by day as you correct all the wrongs in this problem-drenched life, then don’t let me get in your way.
But if it’s not going well for you, then consider this: underneath the surface of life where all the problems exist, God is waiting for us to let go. When we let go of our need to fix, manage, and control we fall. We fall into the arms of God. In the arms of God there is infinite spaciousness and freedom. In the arms of God we are held in problem-free love. In the arms of God one’s will is swallowed up and made one with God’s will. That spaciousness and freedom is always there, underneath the obstacle course. What we all really want is to be seen and held by God who is love. That is the great problem that gives rise to all the other problems. If we really felt seen and loved by our creator, then acceptance would be the lens through which we view all of life and our problems would dissolve in love.
Until I let go of what I expect from you, I am not free to love you fully. But when I allow myself to fall into the arms of God and be stripped of my expectations, then I will find that I am a person reborn with a new outlook on life. You are not a problem, you are a gift and I am free to love you with God from underneath the obstacle course.