Successful living

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Successful living, becoming a successful human being, is a matter of pursuing meaning.  It's important that we clarify what we mean by this.  Drawing on yesterday, pursuing meaning is not a matter of chasing "good feels" in life.  It's a matter of crafting a life which supports our intention to live out of our certain way of seeing (our faith, our guiding principles). 

If we're not paying attention, we may choose directions in life that make it more difficult to live out of our certain way of seeing than others.  For instance, if you are overworked and under-compensated in a job you hate then you will undoubtedly find it more difficult to reflect God's grace, mercy, forgiveness, and love in your various spheres of influence.  Why?  Because you're living on the edge.  When we live on the edge, we're living without a safety net (in a bad way).  We have no margin for error.  Our filters that may prevent us from going completely off the rails are compromised.  We have no "immune system," so to speak. 

And so, as you think about the way in which your life is crafted, one question to consider is:  Are the various elements in my life supporting my way of seeing? 

The beauty of approaching "success" this way is that it allows a lot of flexibility in how we apply it to our lives.  The down side is, we have to be intentional...perhaps annoyingly so.

More to come tomorrow.