Posts Tagged: zest for life

“OBEYING WITH ALACRITY”

On April 22, 2019 by Dteb With 0 Comments - down to earth believer


I love words.  They are no substitute for reality, but they can become a wonderful compost in which real deeds can thrive.

Take the word “alacrity”, for example.  I used it today in my journal entry.

“God, you have given me so much!  I am not sufficiently grateful, loving, or obedient.  Please help me to become more so in all those ways.  Help me to love you more today, to be more grateful, to obey with alacrity.”

I love words, but I often forget their precise meaning.  However, because my friends think I’m smart (and because many of the words I love have Greek or Roman bases), I can get by with  using words that I don’t really understand.  So, after using the word “alacrity”, I had to go back and look up the durned thing.

My first hit was “brisk and cheerful readiness.”

Well, that sounds pretty good, doesn’t it!?

Of course, like every other human on the planet, I sometimes struggle with alacrity.  Oh yes, I will obey—eventually.  But I don’t have to like it.

By the way, do you know what the opposite of alacrity is?  Apathy.  And apathy is so rampant, so prevalent, that it is mistaken these days for the norm.

Unfortunately, people who do things with alacrity often irritate me.  Their enthusiasm their zest for life and living, casts a dreary light on my own apathy.  And when I strive for alacrity, I often irritate others as well.

In my google sleuthing, I noticed that the usage of alacrity has radically declined since 1800.  I am not surprised.  We have elevated apathy to an art form.  It isn’t particularly good art form, but we shouldn’t let that stop us, should we?  Well, maybe we should stop.

So, Self, what is it going to be today?  Are you going to do things with brisk and cheerful readiness, or not?

Your choice!  My slogan for today: “Bring back alacrity!”

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“AFRAID THAT I’LL MISS OUT”

On August 3, 2018 by Dteb With 0 Comments - down to earth believer

Snickers candy bars are calling me.

My wife and I are having a nice getaway at a B & B, and there are all kinds of snack foods, available for free—including Snickers candy bars, which I love.

Eating a bunch of candy and other junk food would be easy and fun, but I am trying to cut back on my consumption of calories and cholesterol.

Perhaps I need to ask myself a question.  It may seem a bit strange, but let me come at this in a roundabout manner.

When I am angry, I have learned to ask a simple question: What am I really afraid of here?

Why do I ask about fear when I’m feeling angry?  Because I’ve noticed that my fear often disguises itself as anger.  Especially for men, anger is preferable to fear—or so we think.

But then there are also fears that can masquerade as desires.  Perhaps the same question that I ask when I feel angry should be asked when I feel desire: What am I really afraid of here?

Since I was a boy, I’ve loved sweets.  When they were available, I would gobble them up as fast as I could.  You may say, “Well, little boys are like that.”

Perhaps.  But I’m an adult now, and I still tend to do that.  One of my wife’s favorite questions to ask me is “What happened to the ______________?”  (The blank could be ice cream or pie or any other sweet.)  Like God, she already knows the answer before she asks the question.

So, what am I afraid of that tends to drive me to eat the wrong stuff, to eat too much, to eat too fast?

One way to answer the question is to say that I am afraid that I will miss out on something good.  I have a zest for life.  That is good.  But a zest for life is one thing, a lust for life is another.  Of course I know, in my heart of hearts, that too much of something good ain’t good.  Still, there it is.

What would happen if I told myself another story?  What if I told myself that less is more, that deferred gratification is so much more pleasurable than immediate gratification is?  Perhaps I wouldn’t even need to believe this truth at first.  Perhaps I could just keep telling myself this, not because I believe it, but because it is the truth.

Meanwhile, the Snickers bars are still calling, but their voice is a bit fainter.  Maybe later!

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