“Do what you love to do and give it your very best. Whether it’s business or baseball, or the theater, or any field. If you don’t love what you’re doing and you can’t give it your best, get out of it. Life is too short. You’ll be an old man before you know it.”
– Al Lopez
I’m a firm believer in doing what you love. It brings so much joy to life.
It may take time, great effort, infinite patience and unyielding persistence to get to the place of doing what you love, but if the desire is sincere, the goal will be reached, and the effort will have been worth every ounce of energy expended.
Thank you! The perfect reminder I needed today! (Especially helpful when contemplating those New Years Resolutions!) Thanks!
To understand more each day that it is God which is Love allows me to be more loving than the day before. Love Life.
“Let the Beauty we love be what we do. There are hundreds of ways to kneel and kiss the ground.” Jelaluddin Rumi
Thanks, Evan! The Rumi quote sent me running for my Beautiful Rumi Books! Yes, it is so important to learn to Love Ourselves enough to let ourselves do what we love. Learning to love and accept ourselves is one of the most healing ways to letting us do what we love!
Good point, Evan! And for those of us who are not yet at the point of doing what we love — should we not also work at loving what we are doing now? In that way, we make ourselves more fit for the occupation or activity we want and find the possibilities for joyous employment/activity expanding.
G…very good point……at some point i realized i wasn’t wanting virtuosity
on Guitar…It became clear I was really wanting virtuosity in the “Art of Living”
Then I came upon Christian Science…..
Ya know, seems like we all comment a lot on this Blog re. how Loving we can be to Others. But how much do we contemplate and take action on Loving Ourselves….?? A lot of people I know raised in or currently embracing a Religion (usually some form of Christian) seem to go over board in focusing on Always Loving Others. I know I was raised this way…..and I never learned that it was not only OK, but Absolutely Necessary to learn to Love Myself First, before I could even begin to be effective in Loving Others. Any Comments…??
I agree Bevi. It’s kind of like the instructions they give on a plane about oxygen masks…”put your own mask on first before helping somebody else put on their mask”. It’s impossible to help others realize the love of God unless we have first learned to truly realize God’s love in our own experience.
Oh.. Bevi… thank you for opening a very important topic…. Brian’s comment are very helpful….. loving ourselves… well my comment would start with trying to understand love from a CS perspective….
how about we seem to , as humans, the ability to experience two kinds of love…. love… lower case… and Love… uppercase…. one is an illusion… personal… conditional… and feels like something we as humans generate within ourselves… it is actually less than an illusion … it is nothing….. the other Love is God… omnipresent… impersonal…. unconditional… the only reality… you might say what we are made of… as a spiritual idea of Gods creation…
So if the human experience is a dream do I need to love myself because of some erroneous perception of a deficiency i have about my dream life thus making my dream more comfortable… so I feel better about my dream time … so many words of nonsense….
Brian’s few words, “realize” especially, are more succinct…..
Would like to have Evan chime in….
Hi Maximo,
I’d push back on your statement that love expressed between humans is illusion. You are correct about distinguishing between love and Love. Love, with a capital, L is a synonym for God, in Christian Science. However, love with a small l is not considered an illusion in Christian Science. it is very real, very tangible, when inspired by divine Love. Ideally, it is divine Love in action through us and our friends and neighbors.
When we are inspired by divine Love, we naturally express love toward our neighbor. This love is not illusion. It’s the presence of God at work. it is real, and it comes from God.
Love as a purely sensual act could fall into the category of illusion, when the motive is purely for selfish gain and there is no redeeming spiritual quality about it. That kind of love is not love at all, but temporary selfish indulgence. It doesn’t have a lasting good effect.
Hope that helps.
Thank you Evan….This helps me a lot…As being fairly new to CS
and finding this study so satisfying to my human desire to know Truth
I tend to go over all new info and concepts with a very fine mental comb..
Any clarifications other members offer i consider extremely valuable although I will always rely on my own efforts and contemplative prayers to be the final say in how I change/alter beliefs I hold and in this way am taking responsibility for my own salvation…by allowing beliefs to transform more closely to Truth…Chemicalization of thought….and I love that in the spirit of Love and love we are always one and therefore care for one another
With Respect and gratitude, Thanks again Evan
What to do if you can’t get out of what you don’t love?
Best question of the day…
Hi Rhonda,
If I may humbly put in my two cents: begin each day, and as often as you can during the day, realize that God is in control of your life, happiness, supply, circumstance, associates, etc. I’m not saying that this is easy – the world is full of distractions – but, as you stick to this thinking more consistently, you will see positive changes in your situation. You will be led to the wonderfully satisfying things that God has for you.
I am reminded of the words that Evan used above: it may take time, effort, patience, and persistence, but it will be well worth the effort.
Right now you are dearly loved by your father-mother God. You will bless others and be blessed; and you’ll love it!
Hi Rhonda,
You are never stuck! There is always a path of progress in front of you. Jesus Christ has already walked down it and shown us how to successfully follow.
I agree, sometimes it might look like you are stuck, but that is only a mortal point of view. So, that point of view is what you want to demonstrate over.
Pray for a new higher more enlightened spiritual perspective that sheds the limits you are presently entertaining. There are no material limits on Mind.
Rely upon divine Mind, not upon material sense, to see and know what you are capable of doing that leads to progress.
Mind will reveal possibilities to you that the human mind has not seen.
All things are possible with God!
Great Comments, All! Thank you for sharing. Especially your comment that human love is not an illusion, when inspired by divine Love. This brings God right into our human lives where we need Him!
This is where healing and help happens, after all. In reality, God’s idea, man, needs no such. But humans do need this. (Thus SpiritView…Thank You, God!)
It is just so …divine to glimpse divine Love’s care for humans in just the way that is needed, WHEN we are lined up with His/Her wisdom and guidance.
Self-will can seem to get in the way and cause all sorts of havoc, (illusive havoc!), especially in human relationships! But divine Love really is ALL (Oh this Week’s Lesson ~ So wonderful on this!!)
so is our best Recourse!!
And Bevi, Brian: Thank you for the critically important reminder that it’s ok to love oneself, AS GOD’S IDEA! This is not
a self-love/human ego thing, but is honoring what is true and right about us, in spiritual fact. Low self-esteem is a very sad thing…
GOD sure does love us!!
:<))
What I love has changed so over the years. I barely understand what I really love anymore. I will try to explore this in more depth. I could use a real makeover materially and spiritually!
Patty Mylar, your comment re the post on doing what you love about needing a makeover materially and spiritually and re not understanding what you love any more made me think. What I love has changed too, along with careers and places and people I stayed close to… what has been ever-present is God- sending good continually, in ways I could understand. In reflecting on what you love and who you really are, it helps to start with God as Love, and to explore and claim who you are and what you express as God’s spiritual idea, relative to this and other Bible-based synonyms for God such as Truth, Life, Soul, Spirit, and Mind. Principle shows forth God’s law and government… and guides our own on-going make-over in consciousness “from sense to Soul”.
My teacher in class instruction, Godfrey John, told us to look for answers to what we needed in each week’s Christian Science Bible Lesson. In the lesson to be read Jan.1- several citations point to understanding life/Life as being spiritual, and finding who we are in God’s being. For example:
Bible
responsive reading from Isaiah 41:10 and 43:1-3(to:), 4(to :), 6, 10, 11 (to:)
Jeremiah 29:11-13 (From section three), 31: 3 ( Yea).
Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy
336:1-12, 14-16, 19 (only)
1: 1-5
289: 11, 29-2 np (Spirit)
496-1-3, 14-20
506:10
Thank you Evan and Bud. I appreciate you taking the time to respond. It’s hard to try when it appears hopeless…but I will try
Please do ,dear Rhonda, hold on to any thought that comes to you from God and expect good. It’s all you can receive.
Being a Christian Scientist.
Dear Bud, thanks again for your encouragement. Thinks are looking up. I’m going to be okay. <3