A Griffith Listing

Real Estate Services by Jon Griffith

You are here: Home / Archives for track

Is There Really Something More…?

by

We’re obsessed as a nation and as a people with the idea that there’s more to life than what we have and we feel we cannot be satisfied with what we have until we’ve had more; that there’s a dissatisfaction with the concept of destiny, or a path that’s already been written for us, and we fight against it, thinking that we’re missing out on something else.  I am as human as you are, and I too feel at times like there is something in life that I am missing out on.  However, in my heart of hearts, I know that I am who I am supposed to be, I am doing what I am supposed to be doing, and nothing can change what’s going to happen to me next anymore than I can predict it.

I find great comfort and peace in the idea that my life, from beginning to end, has been written out for me and that I’m along for the ride.  Like a roller coaster (which we can choose to ride or not, unlike being born,) we can either kick and scream and live fearfully throughout the entire ride, or we can smile in excitement at every twist and turn, bump and bang, knowing that eventually the ride will settle.  The funny thing about a roller coaster is that the track never changes, and if you find that the ride is too terrifying, and you don’t get off, you’ll be going around for another.  But regarding life’s events, do I have a choice in the matter?  Well, sort of.

The idea that we have a choice in what happens to us doesn’t fit very well into my life.  In fact, to say that we have any control over what happens to us, seems incomprehensible to me.  I am far more apt to ask the question “why me” after something adverse happens to me that is out of my control.  But why would I want to live in that state?  Why would I want to hold so tightly to the idea that I’m in control of what happens if it leads to me being angry about what hasn’t happened yet?

The very fact that I imply that some things are out of my control and some things are within my control seems to negate the idea that we have no choice.  Let me clarify.

I believe I can choose.  I believe that I can choose to act on a calling in my life.  I believe that I can choose to respond to something that happens to me.  I also believe that when I look at my life as though there’s more available than I am getting out of it, that I’m dissatisfied with what I have, then I am failing to appreciate what I have, and begin to subscribe to the Woulda, Coulda, Shoulda in life.

“I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want.”

-Phillipians 4:12

“Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, ‘Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.’ ”

-Hebrews 13:5

I understand that you may not believe what the Bible reads.  I do believe it, completely, as off the wall odd as it may seem to some of you, and it is my toolbox to handle any life-task at hand.

If I look at life in the shoulda, coulda, woulda way, I most likely experience overwhelming debt, selfishness, and dissatisfaction.  But, when I let go of controlling my destiny, when I let go of the idea that I have control over the uncontrolled, I can use my ability to choose for better things like reacting in a healthy way to what I cannot control, and I believe I become more apt to give, and no matter how much money I have, or make, or how many things I accumulate, if I cannot give to the world something of value greater than money, then I have not lived.

So Is There Really Something More?

Yes, I trust there is, but I can’t tell you where to go to get it because it comes from a place that exists outside of this world, and I’m not attempting to draft you into a new comet-chasing cult.  I believe that very thing that we yearn for deep down inside is God.  I think we all have a God-shaped hole in our heart that we seek to fill with things that are temporary.  Sure, we’re temporary in body, but what about our spirit?  What about our Soul?  How can one reconcile the concept of nothing after death?  There is something so much more in my life that keeps me looking forward instead of looking back, that lifts me up from the ashes and draws me towards Glory.  That thing is the peace that transcends all of my own worldly understanding, which I cannot explain, that leads me to do as much of what’s good as my bones can manage before falling again to the inevitable sin that comes from inside of me.  There is something more, and I have it now.  It’s not something I need to go looking for.

“You broke the bonds, and loosed the chains, carried the cross, of all my shame…

…but I still haven’t found what I’m looking for.”  – U2

In a spiritual sense, I have found everything I am looking for, but my conscious existence, my flesh on this planet still cries out for more.  And thus I move forward without the shame of the past.

Road Trippin’

by

About 3 hours into it the road began to look long and narrow, like peeking through a rolled up piece of paper to focus in on something of perceived importance. The eyes grew heavy and all I could do to remain awake was scratch my head and rub my face, wishing I had something to munch on to keep my brain occupied. She offered to drive, but I said I was okay.  I knew that it would be a short while before I’d be back on track and alert as I remembered that there was a bag of sun flower seeds waiting for me. But, without a cup, sun flower seeds get messy, so I set my sights on a cup of coffee. On long road trips sleep begins to manifest at about the 2 hour mark, but a few tools have been put into place to prevent disaster. I don’t know why it happens, but it does. Perhaps it has something to do with the dashes. Dash, dash, dash. Endless painted lines streaming through the center of my way, flashing, dashing, blinking, over and over again. And the power lines, suspended by giant toothpicks that manage to survive the elements for years and years, one after another, all the same…

…New Mexico. Not my idea of one of the most beautiful places on earth, but hey, you can buy fireworks there. Oh, and you can find aliens, so I’ve heard. Hogwash. The better parts of New Mexico are as the better parts of Arizona. High mountain country with pines and cool weather, clouds that wash the heavens and are so close you can reach up and grab them, like fluffy cotton candy. Roads aren’t laid out like they are in Phoenix with perpendicularized intersections and easy to figure addresses. They roll and bend and turn, every once in a while stretching out for a long climb or swiftly swooping up and around the edge of a mountain. Don’t drive off the edge however.  It’s a long way down…

Coffee, food, sun-flower seeds, and good company make for what one would consider an agonizing drive much more pleasant, and upon reflection, rather quick.  Here we are Ruidoso!

Talk about flippin’ annoying!

by

I used to operate a blog that I called AOC – Addiction of Choice which had at least 5 months of daily postings. I have completely lost track of the data. I have no idea where it went. So, I’m posting this to let you know that I’m an idiot. Bonafide. Perhaps this site will be tended to more diligently.