T. David Beck: The Simple Way of Jesus

Psalm 63:1 says, "My body longs for you." What does it feel like to physically long for God? How might longing for God contributes to your happiness? And how can you engage in this kind of prayer? Here are two realizations I came to over after meditating on "my body longs for God" for just fifteen minutes. Realization #1: "My body longs for God" can feel like a Great Calm.  I have prayed "my body longs for you" many times, and most often I have thought of it as a longing for God that is like frantically searching for a lost wallet. Indeed, sometimes bodily longing for God has a sense of guttural desperation. But not today. This morning "my body longs for you" didn't like desperation. Instead I unexpectedly drifted into a Great Calm. And I realized that being embraced by the Great Calm was not the opposite of longing for God. It  was  longing for God. And that's why I wanted to tell you about it. This is great news for t...

In last week's post, I talked about how J. D. Roth's book, Money: The Missing Manual starts out with a discussion of happiness. Here is the graphic that has stuck with me: The Fulfillment Curve. Here's how it works. When you spend money on survival needs (food, clothing, shelter, safety), that money delivers you a great deal of fulfillment.  When you buy basic comforts (a chair, a pillow, a second pair of pants), these items bring you fulfillment but not as much as your survival needs.  Eventually, especially if you are an American, you likely get to spend money on luxuries (a house, a more comfortable bed, a wardrobe of clothing that is stylish and functional enough to make you feel pretty good). This puts you at the top of The Fulfillment Curve.  The mistake many people make is that they keep hungering to spend more. Here's how Roth describes the plunge over the top of The Fulfillment Curve: Buying a sofa made you happy, so you buy recliners to match. ...