Happy Heart

Sunday, August 3, 2014

Do you like puzzles? They’re intricate, enigmatic, and often tough to figure out. Each puzzle has unique pieces to it that, when assembled together in proper relationship to each other, reveal a unique solution.

Puzzles.

I think that we often think of life as a puzzle in which we have unique problems requiring unique solutions.

I think that we also believe that even though our unique problems require a unique solution there are a number of ways to arrive at said solution.

Mathematically, this is true. Case in point. Here is a problem I found online along with several solutions:

“Use 8 exactly 8 times to make 1000. You can use any mathematical symbols.”

And here are several solutions:

8888/8.888 [1]
888 + 88 + 8 + 8 + 8 [4]
8(8×8+8×8)-8-8-8 [7]

(8+((8+8)/8))^((8+8+8)/8) [7]

The numbers in the brackets show how many steps it takes to reach the solution. I like this example because it shows that we can get to the same answer in one easy step or we can complicate things and really drag it out.

What if I suggested to you that there is only one problem and one solution? Would you “buy” that? Or do you feel as LDS writer JeaNette Smith does in Meridian Magazine, that we have a slew of problems? (no offense meant to LDS or JeaNette Smith): “Trying to solve too many of life’s problems at one time can make us feel like we are reeling, never seeing beyond the fact that we face a slew of problems, and failing to focus on one problem long enough to find a solution.”

Imagine going to a professional for help and, after listening to you, he/she declares, "The trouble here is that you have a slew of problems!" Do you think the idea, or the guidance to you by a certified family therapist and mental health counselor that you have a slew of problems is going to lighten your heart… buoy up and strengthen your spirits?

I think we can find good advice in Proverbs 17:22,
“A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a broken spirit saps a person's strength.”

I would find the idea that I have a slew of problems overwhelming. That clearly does not “cheer my heart,” and it can easily break the spirit to one whom takes life as serious and heavy.

Take life seriously---just do be sooo serious about it.

A Course In Miracles tells us, “Into eternity, where all is one, there crept a tiny, mad idea, at which the Son of God [forgot] to laugh. In his forgetting did the thought become a serious idea, possible of… real effects.”

This “tiny mad idea” is the idea that we are separate from God.

What we forgot to laugh at is the fact that separation from God is impossible. It’s no more possible to be separate from God than it is to separate the red from red. But the fact remains that we think this is so.

The idea that we can be separate from God is our one problem. Our one and only problem… and that idea shows up in a slew of ways:

·        the addiction to having to be right

·        the drive to be perfect in an imperfect world

·        trying to control outcomes

These, and others, are ways in which we act so as not to have to look at our deepest fear… that we are separate from God. The best part is when you really take that exploration to heart you will discover that you are an extension of God; and that all you’ve been doing is acting out in a way at which you forgot to laugh!

The ability to laugh at ourselves is good medicine; like when we’re driving on the Interstate at rush hour. We’re in an internal hurry and we keep changing lanes because one of the lanes next to us is moving faster than our lane… and as soon as we do that, the lane we were in becomes the faster lane. And it doesn’t matter which lane we move into, that’s not the fastest lane… and we feel anxiety and frustration. I catch myself doing that and I have to laugh at myself for the silliness of not being able to get what I want when I want it… which, basically in that situation, is to be one tenth or one quarter of a mile further down the road.

     The ability to laugh at ourselves and the world around us, too, is good medicine.

     “During a House Armed Services Committee meeting held on 25 March 2010, Representative Hank Johnson, a Democrat from Lithonia, Georgia, questioned Admiral Robert Willard, commander of the U.S. Pacific Command, about a proposal to move 8,000 Marines from the Japanese island of Okinawa to the U.S. Pacific island territory of Guam. In the course of that questioning, Rep. Johnson expressed concern that adding thousands of Marines and their families to Guam might cause that small island to "tip over and capsize." You can see this on a video, and in all fairness to Rep. Johnson, he may have realized his humorous error and corrected himself, but the video stops after the gaffe. (Rep. Johnson has since been reelected)

Laughter lightens our hearts and so many problems that seemed so big and heavy scram like cockroaches when the lights come on.

     A happy heart is good medicine. Mark Twain said, “The human race has one really effective weapon, and that is laughter.”

     I think smiling is a silent form of laughter, so smiling is good medicine, too

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dZlLau5FquI

     With the time we have left this morning, let’s have a little fun with church and religion, something that a lot of people think is blasphemous to laugh at or have fun with.

Imagine The Lord’s Prayer if it were written by an attorney:

“Our Father, who shall be termed party of the first part, whose place of business is in Heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy Kingdom, pursuant to terms and conditions, come. Thy will, duly uncontested, be done on earth, inasfar as existing statutes permit, as it is in Heaven. Give us, this third day of August, 2014, our daily bread. Forgive us our debts, notwithstanding claims, liens and legal costs, as we, who shall be termed party of the second part, forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, i.e. sin, corruption, greed, gluttony, etc., but deliver us from evil, the nature of which shall be determined by the court. For thine is the Kingdom, the Power, and, pending appeal, the Glory forever. Amen.”

Or how about this, (modifying the words of Bruce Hancock), "Life in church taught me two things: One is that God loves you and you're going to burn in hell. The other is that sex is the most awful, filthy thing on earth and you should save it for someone you love."

Friday I was outside changing the sign when I saw Mrs. Ingram next door. She was saying to me that it looked like it was going to rain, to which I smiled, shrugged my shoulders and said, “Well… can’t do anything about that.”

She smiled back at me with a factious look of wonder on her face and said, “You can’t?”

“Nope,” I said, “I’m in sales, not management.”

I don’t know who said this, and I think it’s good advice, “Let your religion be less of a theory and more of a love affair.”

Every love affair includes free and open laughter. In your love affair with your spiritual growth laughter will help make the “one problem” easier to accept and the one solution easier to access.

Next week I’ll speak about the one solution. In the meantime remember:

*If you can live without caffeine,

*If you can be cheerful, ignoring aches and pains,

*If you can resist complaining,

*If you can understand when your loved ones are too busy to give you any time,

*If you can take criticism and blame without resentment,

*If you can ignore a friend's limited education and never correct him or her,

*If you can resist treating a rich friend better than a poor friend,

*If you can face the world without lies and deceit,

*If you can conquer tension without medical help,

*If you can relax without liquor,

*If you can sleep without the aid of drugs,

*If you can honestly say that deep in your heart you have no prejudice against creed, color, religion, gender preference, or politics,

--Then you have almost reached the same level of spiritual development as your dog!