Earlier this year, I was fortunate enough to hear Steve Chandler talk live for 3 days. I just can’t stop thinking about one of the stories he told, so I’m sharing it with you. He said:

 I wrote a play. The only problem with the play is that it only lasts one minute. So it’s not marketable.

The play is based on my life. 

So the deity figure, whatever that means for you, the embodiment of the universe, God, whatever. Just say it’s God for the play. 

God is standing there, and I am born. And God sees me, and God gives me the gift of life. “I’m going to let you have a life,” He says. 

And I take the gift of life, and I look at it, and I look up, and I say, “How do I make it better? How do I make my life better? It’s gotta be better.” 

So the thing is, if I can relax into absolute gratitude for it, it will get better on its own.

This hit me like a ton of bricks

Of course, Steve said that was about his life, but it certainly has been about my life too. I’m always anxious to “make it better.”

But when I look back over my life, I’m not sure any of my anxiety, effort, striving, or plans for improvement did much to make my life better–other than to prove to me that they don’t do much to make my life better! 

Don’t get me wrong, my life has gotten better and better through the years. Mostly, that occurred because life kept happening, and I’ve learned and grown by experiencing what life was here to teach me. The biggest factor in improving my life might be time and maturity. 

All of this reminds me of a poem/prayer written by Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, a French priest, scientist, paleontologist, philosopher, mystic, and teacher. The first line of the poem is, “Above all, trust the slow work of God.” In it, he reminds me, “it is the law of all progress that it is made by passing through some stages of instability—and that it may take a very long time.”

How about you? What has made the biggest difference in making your life “better” (whatever better means)?

I’d love to hear how all this lands for you. Would you hit reply and let me know?