LIFE AIN'T EASY! But it Really Can be a Beautiful Ride

“Life is hard. After all it kills you.’ Those were the words of actress Katherine Hepburn. Death may be a fact of life that we must all face but we must not get so focused on death that we forget to live. Wherever we are in life we have differing lengths of time between today and the day we die. If it is today, tomorrow, or fifty years from now, death must not destroy living.

Life ain’t easy. It is full of work, boredom, difficulty, pain, and stress. In the face of this terrible picture, we need to find meaning or purpose in life, to give us a reason to endure through the problems of living. We need something for which to live. Don’t you agree with this conclusion about life?

I believe that one of the real reasons folks never really enjoy living is the fact that they just never move forward and change their thoughts, ideas, and patterns of living. Why don’t they move forward? It is quite simple. There is a great embedded fear that keeps them from moving forward. How sad! What is there to fear? Someone said, “We have nothing to fear but fear itself.”

Consider the words from “The Rose:” “Its the heart afraid of breaking, that never learns to dance/Its the dream afraid of waking, that never takes the chance/Its the one who won't be taken, the one who can't seem to give/And the soul afraid of dying, that never learns to live.”

The words of that song speak very strongly to the fear that is in so many of us. Think about each line of the song. Something is lost because someone was afraid to make an investment. He never learned to dance, or he never took the chance, or he just couldn’t seem to give, and in the end he never learned to live. Afraid of dying. . .He never lived.

My will to live is very strong. I have family and friends who will miss me if I check out. I am sure I also have some enemies who won’t have anyone to hate if I check out. So, I will not check out on my own. I love living and really believe you can too if you try it. Go back to the words of “The Rose” and reverse everything in the verse we quoted. You can do it.

Gary Allen sings it well, “Hey, life ain't always beautiful, But it's a beautiful ride. What a beautiful ride.”