Excerpt from Chapter One: Live La Dolce Viva Do you ever have those days when nothing makes sense and you wonder if anything matters? I certainly do. I live with an ache in my soul for my real home. This life certainly isn't heaven. I have good days and bad days. Actually I have some really fabulous days and some really devastating ones. I even have days when I still question the point of my very existence. But I do have a love for life-when I'm not wishing myself out of the discomfort of this world. I am eager to live my days with passion and a spirit of adventure.
I am determined to live life richly and to let its bouquet romance my soul. I am committed to give life all I've got. I love to laugh till my belly hurts; I have cried as hard. I enjoy people, but they can hurt me. Friends love me, and I can hurt them. Bread comforts me. So does pizza…and Oreos. (But I hate how these delicacies can so easily end up around my thighs and my middle.
) I love to sleep, but I hate the sound of the alarm clock. I am always amazed when the sun sets. I wish I got out of bed more often to see it rise. I work really hard, but I can play with just as much energy. In the midst of cell phones and e-mails and pagers, we're losing the art of conversation. We've stopped reaching out to the person we don't know. And we miss so much. Those are the ways God shows Himself to us and to others.
Those are the very ways God increases our hearts' capacity to a size that makes room for Him. When we generously share a word, a thought, or a story, our hearts enlarge. Our own experiences can jade us, leaving us judgmental and close minded. When we participate in sweet moments with others, however, we beautify the landscape of our own territories. We see farther and feel deeper. At the core of the sweet life is the enjoyment of people. Participating in their lives in ways that bless and encourage and lift up. This exchange most of the time will present itself in unexpected places.
I am frequently in airports, and at any gate in any airport right now you will see more people engaging with technology than with another human soul. Then we wonder why some of our kids just grunt at us and our guests. Many of us grownups have become apathetic and self-absorbed, never even entertaining the thought of just asking people how they are. It was quite common years ago to sit on a porch at the close of a day. Young mothers asked advice from the lady next door. Kids played with actual toys and used their imaginations. "Game boys" were nothing more than children playing-not robotic kids losing a sense of life and time and relationship because a tiny machine in their hands hypnotically entrances them. Don't get me wrong.
It is all exciting and cool and fun. But somehow we are losing balance. We're falling off the edge of the mountaintops from which God has designed for us to have clear vision. That is where we will keep a passionate heart about His concerns for the world and for one another. We lose that, and we will slowly lose our souls. I was at a Subway sandwich shop in Nashville recently and ran into my friends Dick and Melody Tunney. It was a beautiful sunny day, and they were having lunch with their two twentysomething daughters. I watched them through the window as they sat at a table outside and talked.
It was clear that they were thoroughly enjoying one another. As I left, I took the time to tell them how encouraging it was for me to see them chatting away. I told them how unique I thought that was in this day and age. It was glorious to witness the sweet life through this family. Simply and purely. It was a drastic difference from the day before at Borders bookstore. A man and a woman sipping coffee at a table with their daughter. The entire time they sat there, the daughter talked nonstop on her cell phone.
The parents seemed numb and used to it. It saddened my heart. Life flies by, time ticks away, and we miss out on all the richness of love we could be sharing with one another. Most of the time it takes awareness to stop the slippage. Sometimes it takes work. But you will find yourself a wealthy person when you arrive in heaven if you're willing to grasp la dolce vita now. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. (Matthew 6:21) From the Hardcover edition.