Be Glad, Be Content, Be Charitable, whatever you have.

 

When we have nothing, let’s be glad in what we have. When we have something, let’s give thanks for what we have. And when we everything, let’s not forget to share what we have. 

How contented we are depends on how we respond when we have nothing, something and everything. That is the measure of one’s life.

At some point, apart from inherited wealth, we have nothing to show for or boast about. We start from somewhere and we gradually earn our keep from there. 

Every step of the way is not going to be easy. But we take it in our stride and make the best of the nothing that we start with. The fact that we are able to take that journey is something to rejoice in. That is the simple joy of living. 

And as we are consistent in our time and effort, we will reach a place where we start to have something. That calls for us to respond with the something that we have. It may not be a lot when compared to others. But it is still something that we have laboured for in earnest. 

Success is always relative. Others will always have more or less than you. It’s about sowing and reaping. Some sow and get more than those who sow. Some reap and it is less than others who reap. But success is personal too. For your lot in life is yours to respond to. 

You don’t need to benchmark your life to another as a test of success. Your journey is yours and you need to treasure the growth that comes with it. 

A life of quiet desperation is a life that is constantly ungrateful of the something that he has. Although he sees the journey he has taken from nothing to something, yet he always wants to have everything even before he has anything. 

That is a life that is always unsettled, because his heart is never thankful. The simple joy of life eludes him. And even if he has everything, it is still nothing to him. Worse, there is always something lacking in the everything that he possesses. 

Now, I will move on to the one who has everything, whether it is inherited wealth or in what he has reaped thus far.

I wrote that he who has everything must never forget to share. But even for he who has nothing, he still has something to share. His journey is made so much more meaningful if what little he has is offered to those who has nothing or something. For enduring success in a life comes not from acquisition, taking from others, but from transformation, giving out to others. 

We are rich not by the measure of our possession, but by the gratitude of our heart. It is not how much our heart can contain, but how much we rejoice and are grateful for, regardless of how much we have. For to know when you have enough is indeed to be rich beyond all measure. 

So, for he who has everything, his response is in fact everything. He must never forget that he came with nothing, and he will leave this earth with nothing too. Although what he has is something to be happy about, yet enduring joy comes to him whose identity is not defined by the everything that he possesses. 

For if he starts and ends his journey with the state of his heart when he has nothing, and progress with the same state he was in when he has something, then even when he finally reaches a point of having everything, his heart is still the same as he was when he has nothing. 

And that heart is unchanging because it has always kept its anchor on what is important and enduring in the journey that he has taken. And that heart is a heart that knows from where he came from, and to where he is heading. 

Such a heart always keeps a long-lens perspective of life, and it is a perspective that is never defined by what he owns. It is however defined by a heart that is glad when he has nothing, a heart that is thankful when he has something, and a heart that gives when he has everything.