Lies attacking ‘the good life’

We’ve all experienced it — that vague feeling of aimlessness, restlessness, perhaps in the late afternoon; in a word, the doldrums. We experience it as background noise, but don’t really know what it is. It’s an unpleasant feeling that we seek to either eliminate or mask with external stimuli. And the stimulus could be anything as long as it’s colorful, animated, rhythmic, funny or engrossing: TV, YouTube, mischief, porn, movies, games, books, food or all of the above. We’ll do anything to get rid of it.

Lie: I cannot create anything unless I have an ideal solution.
Truth: Ideal solutions do not exist. We participate in God’s act of new creation by planting the seeds of words, deeds and of our own lives.

Well over ninety percent of our waking (and sleeping) lives are now lived in interior, engineered environments. The walls, ceilings, floors, windows, car interiors, appliances, furnishings and systems that surround us represent years, decades, centuries even, of designed perfection. But it was not always so.
Being constantly surrounded by this designed perfection obviously has its benefits, but it also has its down-sides. One of those down sides is the feeding of this lie: I cannot create anything unless I have the ideal solution. So let me . . .

Lie:      I’m unavoidably too busy.
Truth: I have the time to do all of God’s will.
What is busyness?
Busyness is a form of overcommitment. It’s like three things:
clutter – too much stuff for the space it must occupy.
debt – too many financial commitments for the amount of income.
gluttony – too much food for the gastro-intestinal system to process at one time.
We know the symptoms: hurry, lateness, frustration . . .

Lie: Rest must be earned.
Truth: Rest is given.
Do you ever: feel guilty when you relax? have trouble receiving unsolicited gifts? need to stay busy? If you do, you may have imbibed this subtle lie: Rest must be earned. The truth is that our rest was so important that God built it into his world from the very beginning.

Lie: More is better.
Truth: Less is better.

The maxim – less is more – is now a commonplace, but still seems counterintuitive. Most however, would agree that the accumulation of more and more stuff has a point of diminishing returns. Witness the hoarders or even the cluttered homes and closets of the average suburbanite.

From the Los Angeles Times:
Consider these statistics cited by professional organizer Regina Lark: The average U.S. household has 300,000 things, from paper clips to ironing boards.
The volume of artificial things has exploded in the last one hundred years: coasters, bookmarks, disposable cups, plates, sporks, watches, dental floss, plastic bags, dog treats, mechanical pencils, light switches, welcome mats, pillows, fans, magazines, lamps and on it goes. But that’s just the physical things. . .