Dearest friend,
We are camping this week, and I noticed something as I watched the birds and other animals around us. They were simply… living. Doing what they do, right there in the space they found themselves in. They didn’t seem concerned about what was happening beyond the next tree, or the one after that. They weren’t comparing their lives to another bird’s life. They weren’t striving for more. They were content.They had what they needed to survive, no excess, no accumulation and somehow, that was enough.
It made me wonder about us as humans. How rarely we allow ourselves that kind of peace. We are always reaching: for more, for bigger, for better. We seldom seem satisfied with what we have or who we are. We chase improvement without pausing to ask why, often without noticing the cost. Our desire for more can turn into greed, and we don’t always stop to consider how our choices affect others, or the environment that quietly carries us all.
Yet, we were not created by chance. We were not an accident of randomness. We were created by the Lord, God Almighty, intentionally, thoughtfully, and with purpose. By design.
Sometimes I think animals may be the only living creatures that truly do what they were designed to do. They live within their nature, exactly as they were created to. We, on the other hand, often spend our lives resisting ours, striving, comparing, and searching outward for something that was always meant to be found within.
We compare our lives to people we don’t even know. We buy things we don’t really need or ever truly use. We spend endless hours working to afford a life that doesn’t quite feel like our own. Almost all of us do this at some point, it’s part of the human story, but there comes a moment when something has to shift.
A moment when we need to stop comparing and start appreciating, because this life is not a given. It is a gift. A privilege entrusted to us by God. About a year ago, I came to a similar realization. I was working overtime relentlessly, convincing myself it was necessary, even noble. But eventually I had to ask a harder question: what am I trading my time for? Money can be earned again. Time cannot. Once it’s gone, it’s gone.
Comparing our lives to someone else’s doesn’t enrich us; it slowly blinds us. It breeds envy, and in doing so, it steals our ability to see what we already have and in the end, none of it comes with us anyway. When we die, we leave exactly as we arrived, empty-handed.
I hope that when my time comes, I’m given five quiet minutes to look back and in those minutes, I hope I won’t measure my life by what I accumulated, but by how faithfully I lived. By the experiences I allowed myself to have. By the moments I was fully present for. By the times I chose enough instead of more.
I hope I can rest in the knowing that I lived as I was created to live aware of my purpose, grateful for what I was given and at peace with the God who designed me to be here in the first place.
With love,
The Whimsical Mailbox