Live The Life That You Have

 

I know, I know. It's been a hot second since I've written anything. The last few months have been a bit weird. To make a long story short, I had an ice skating accident mid-December, that put me in a hospital for two days, gave me a titanium rod in my leg, had me hobbling around with a walker/crutches till January, and left me on work restrictions till the first week of February.

Although the entire incident was quite a shocker to me, and everybody I know, my healing has gone as well as it possibly could have. As of now, I'm walking mostly normal, still on a few heavy lifting/high impact restrictions, and doing some light work, part-time, while looking for my next full-time job. 

Granted, this long break off work should've been plenty of time to do all kinds of blogging. So, where have I been?

Well, for one, I've been doing a lot of job research, trying to pick what direction to go next. Also, I've been writing. In the last couple months, I took a 51,000 word rough draft of a story I wrote three years ago, and I turned it into 118,100 words. I'm really excited about finishing this second draft. Where it will go from here, I do not know.

 But the third thing that kept me from blogging was mainly just a lack of inspiration. Trying to come up with ideas on what to write about. Until this morning.

For context, I've been helping my uncle milk cows on the weekends, just about as long as I've lived in Maryland. During the winter months, this includes feeding calves from his Autumn calving season.

As of right now, most of the calves are around 4-5 months old. They've been weaned off of milk for quite some time.

But two cows bred really late, and they just had their calves the other week. So now there's two little baby bulls in the calf pen, getting milk every day while the older calves eat hay.

Except that when the older calves see the two babies drinking milk, they get quite upset. They swarm the corner pen where the babies are, they try stuffing their heads through the fence, trying their hardest to drink out of the feeder, and they bawl that life isn't fair. A few get so desperate, they attempt to suck on each other, even though they are still babies who haven't been bred yet.

But watching these calves and their behavior, I got to thinking. How often do we, as humans, act just like these calves?

They have four big racks, loaded with hay. They have access to a corral outside the barn. They get a helping of molasses twice a day. But they whine and cry and pout, because they aren't allowed to have any more milk.

And so many people in the world, including myself, have a tendency to act just as bad. We live life daydreaming about the life we wish we had. Discontent with our jobs. Discontent with where we live. Discontent with politics. Discontent with the stuff we own.

We think, "if only I could do *that* job, I'd have it made." Or, "if only I lived somewhere different, I'd be happier." Or, "if only I was married, then I'd be less miserable." Or, "I wish I had a car as nice as [whoever person] (or bigger house, or pool, or more land, or a self-sufficient homestead, or fancy destination vacation, or whatever).

For me, I get way too carried away with the story worlds I write characters who do heroic things, characters who are really smart, characters who live places and do things and lead lives that I will only ever dream about. It is really easy for me to whine because I very simply do not have the means to such ends. It's not the life I was given. 

 But you know how my uncle's calves could be the happiest? If they would ignore the milk that the two babies are getting, and they simply decided to be content with their hay and molasses.

And that's where we can be the happiest, too. When we choose to accept the lives we live. When we choose to be content with the reality we've been given. 

Granted, I do need to look for work, and something that pays a more livable wage than what I've done in the past, because I'm simply going to have to figure out how to be responsible for my own roof someday. But if I can feed myself, cloth myself, drink clean water, and have a warm, dry place to sleep at night, if I can sustain this life, what more do I truly need?

Even lacking these, do I have a right to complain? Not when we examine the life of Apostle Paul.

To the present hour we hunger and thirst, we are poorly dressed and buffeted and homeless,
1 Corinthians 4:11

In toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure.
2 Corinthians 11:27

The poor man spent much of his life in prison cells, and yet had so much to say on contentment. Actually, much of Scripture has much to say on contentment.

 Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for he has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.”
Hebrews 13:5

But godliness with contentment is great gain, for we brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of the world. But if we have food and clothing, with these we will be content.
1 Timothy 6:6-8

Then I saw that all toil and all skill in work come from a man's envy of his neighbor. This also is vanity and a striving after wind.
Ecclesiastes 4:4

Sweet is the sleep of a laborer, whether he eats little or much, but the full stomach of the rich will not let him sleep.
Ecclesiastes 5:12

For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world.
1 John 2:16

What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions. You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. Or do you suppose it is to no purpose that the Scripture says, “He yearns jealously over the spirit that he has made to dwell in us”?
James 4:1-10

Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need.
Philippians 4:11-12

And he said to them, “Take care, and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.”
Luke 12:15

For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong. 
2 Corinthians 12:10

Better is the sight of the eyes than the wandering of the appetite: this also is vanity and a striving after wind. 
Ecclesiastes 6:9

And to aspire to live quietly, and to mind your own affairs, and to work with your hands, as we instructed you,
1 Thessalonians 4:11

Better is a little with righteousness than great revenues with injustice. 
Proverbs 16:8

Two things I ask of you; deny them not to me before I die: Remove far from me falsehood and lying; give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with the food that is needful for me, lest I be full and deny you and say, “Who is the Lord?” or lest I be poor and steal and profane the name of my God.
Proverbs 30:7-9

Better is a little with the fear of the Lord than great treasure and trouble with it. 
Proverbs 15:16

 Talk no more so very proudly, let not arrogance come from your mouth; for the Lord is a God of knowledge, and by him actions are weighed. The bows of the mighty are broken, but the feeble bind on strength. Those who were full have hired themselves out for bread, but those who were hungry have ceased to hunger. The barren has borne seven, but she who has many children is forlorn. The Lord kills and brings to life; he brings down to Sheol and raises up. The Lord makes poor and makes rich; he brings low and he exalts. ...
1 Samuel 2:3 - 3:11

But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death. 
James 1:14-15 

The Lord made man to have dominion over the beasts of the field. We were given minds to know and reason. So then, although my uncle's calves may never truly understand contentment, we are not cattle. We can walk in wisdom. We can choose to be content.