BLOOD AND HAPPINESS
The incredible human machine has an approximately 10-ounce heart that pumps blood through the entire body. Can you imagine every 24 hours our arteries, veins, and capillaries deliver blood the same distance as Seattle to New York and back? A miracle machine! This blood brings life to every cell in the body, killing disease and bringing oxygen and good health from head to toe.
The human brain also has a unique gift no other living creation possesses. This gift is the ability to imagine, to dream, to hope. This gift elevates created humans to be just a little lower than the angels (Psalm 8).
While we have these physical gifts from God, we have discovered happiness is not a gift. Rather, happiness is a choice and not a product of circumstance. The brilliant Mahatma Gandhi said, “Without blood, there is no life; without happiness, there is no living.” People who seemingly have every material possession, too often have nothing because happiness is absent. Thus, they are dead to living with joy.
As we know, we are not allowed to choose our circumstances. Yet, we do choose our attitude. In order to flourish in this autumn season, we need to let go of the decayed leaves. God made nature that way, and we can respond that way as well. We can choose to let go of unnecessary weight in our lives and live in gratitude and joy for the life-giving blood in our bodies.
Then, letting go and being grateful allows us to practice happiness in our circumstances. They become the true elevators to living in abundance and not scarcity, even in the fall and winter of our lives!
