Passionately Loving Life

This is a post I have been excited about writing for a while, but something else always presented itself each week. The thought is that its good to have many authentic loves in this world. There's a false belief among Christians that its somehow good to deny yourself even those things that can bring you the most happiness. There's a great line from the book and the movie, "the color purple", and it says, "God must get offended when we just walk by the color purple", Beauty is such an incredible proof of God's very existence, and His Goodness, because its all over the place, it's almost in your face. If there was only one Rose, it would probably be in a museum, but God chose to make millions of Roses. He is so superfluous in the way He pours out beauty. That it would seem wrong not to delight in it.

The second proof that we should passionately delight in the good things of this world, is because happiness is a good that it is important to seek. Happiness makes life more agreeable to those around us, and it offers us a greater opportunity to be more charitable, and more creative for the good of others.

Here's the one problem, there are a lot of false loves in the world. Pope Benedict makes an incredible point about love and truth. Whereever authentic love is, truth will always be present. Because Love is part of Truth, and vice a versus, you can not have one with out the other. So the man that says, "my authentic love in life is going to a prostitution ring," This is not good, because its not true. Through prayer, we can discern the more difficult false loves that we all have. Here are a few of what I believe are my life's authentic loves.

1.) Saturday Date night with my wife- We have tried basically every night of the week to get out together, and it turns out that Saturday we are both most relaxed, and its something that I look forward to every week, our best dates are the most simple, a bike ride to get ice cream in the Spring and Summer, ice skating together in the winter.

2.) Sports with my kids- So far each of my children likes different sports, but I just enjoy watching them grow and have fun, this time with them reminds me that we are created to live this way, in the freedom and joy of being God's child.

3.) Pick-up Basketball- There is a unique joy in serious pick up basketball, even if a person never played before, because its has so many things that are healthy for men, competition and camaraderie. I asked a guy in his 50's who had to finally stop playing after playing for many years, what he missed the most, and he said, "after a week of working in a suite, I used to love giving people a shot to the chest when going for a rebound,"

4.) Work Well done- I enjoy the work week so much, because it feels so good to direct my mind and my strength to something that is supporting my family. Plus, hard work is a great way to overcome fear.

5.) The Rosary with my wife- This is something that I strongly believe is the strength behind my marriage, my wife and I say the Rosary together right when we put the kids to bed each night. If I am having a difficult day, I will find myself thinking its not long until I am with my wife for our daily rosary. I think the strength comes from the fact that love is something we all need, when you pray with your wife, you are giving and receiving love from God and from your spouse.

These are a few of my loves, the point is to have many authentic loves in life, because these moments of happiness will help us make life so much more agreeable to those around us!