What does it mean to be human?
What is it to live fully alive?
For me, to be human and to live fully alive, is to embark upon a disciplined
adventure in recapturing the wonder of all of life. The struggle of
humanity is to be fully who we are. We spend so much time trying to
figure out who we should be that we can forget how to just be...
Being human is an experience that is so unique to each person. All of us with our own take on the shared joy and heartache that life brings. Sorrow, agony, loneliness, exhilaration, passion, joy, ecstasy - we all run the gambit of these emotions, but it is our experience and expression of those poignant moments in our lives which make our journey on this earth so unique to each individual.
With so much to experience in the short time that we have to spend on this planet, how can we not strive to embrace all that life has for us? To live in complete awareness of each joy, each sorrow...each moment. After all, moments are all that we have in which to experience what it is to be fully human, to be fully alive in the hands of a loving God.
There is no risk in Heaven - no battles to fight, no wars to be won. There is no need to have faith, or challenges to overcome. The only time in all of eternity that we get to exercise grit and determination, the only time where we get to be part of the fight, and can risk it all is now. It stands to reason then, that we need to live, taking hold of every moment, grasping at every opportunity and challenge. Breathing in all that each and every moment has to offer us, because when our time is done it would be such a waste to say that we have more left to give, more we wish we could have done, more we could have changed in the world, more moments, more breaths, more appreciation and wonder at the perfect balance of nature that allows us to have life on this planet.
It can be so difficult to embrace the
experience of being human, because
we can get so caught up in the
task of being human, that we become too
myopically focused on ourselves and our issues and to-do lists that we
forget to enjoy the broad sweeping beauty of each moment.
Perhaps the key challenge to being fully human is this: to be alive to each
moment, while living for the the future eternal moment and bringing
Heaven to earth. The challenge is to be who we are - the perfect combination of spirit and body, formed from the earth but breathed upon by the Spirit, living in and from two worlds at once; embracing the beauty and fragility of the one while pulling on the permanence and perfection of the other. To live exclusively from one arena would diminish who we are created to be. We are a wonder of creation. There is nothing else like us. We are human...and we are alive.
