Tune out and into Family and Friends

In today’s world there seems to be an ever-increasing demand for people to produce; for one person to do more functions at work; to be multi-skilled; to be able to get more production from one person with the least impact on the salary bill.

People often work longer hours than before. It is very common for some people to work twelve-hour shifts, six days a week. I know of a man who has worked twelve-hour shifts, seven days a week, for many months. Sadly, many times, there is no choice and economic situations force people to be enslaved in such conditions.

On the other hand, though, very often people do have a choice, but they work within these slavelike conditions in pursuit of a life of grandeur, being motivated by financial gains that all too often do not satisfy or meet their ever-growing pursuits.  What they are trying to do is to create a life of material abundance. What kind of life is this?

“I have come that you may have life, and have it in abundance.”

I am sure you have heard stories of the things people who are on their deathbeds say they would rather have done throughout their lives. And making more money is never one of them.

Most people in their last days say that if they had the chance they would want to spend more time with the people in their lives, be it their spouse, children or friends. That is what being alive is about — our interactions with others. That is when we feel alive. Over this past holiday season many of us have had a taste of feeling this life through the connections we’ve made with friends and relatives.

In my family my eldest brother and his family came to visit us after many years abroad. It was a visit we were looking forward to and preparing for, for many months. The joy and excitement already at the airport when we welcomed them was extremely palpable as we turned the arrivals hall into our own backyard.

We had welcome home banners, colourful garlands, joyful shouts and noises, and lots of hugs and kisses while the cameras and cellphones were clicking away trying to capture the moment. And share it with the world. We had an abundance of joy to give.

Yet this was just a taste of what was lying ahead for the next four weeks of visiting and holidaying which was filled with many exciting things to do.

During this same period, sadly, my niece gave birth to a stillborn baby and my younger brother and his family were devastated. It was heartbreaking. Again, we were all there with them offering assistance and just spending time. Just being with them in the moment, serving them and sharing their experience as best we could was also a sense of feeling life—feeling the sad emotions and stuff that life is made of. And realising again that life brings joys as well as sorrows and that we can experience both with a sense of abundance.

God is a God of abundance. Just as he has given us an abundance of joy, peace and beauty to share with others during our happy moments, so too he has given us an abundance of compassionate hearts and spirits to love and support each other during our moments of sadness.

We can live abundantly every day. We do not have to wait for special occasions or significant days to practice and experience abundance.

If we are going to put in those long hours every day, let us ensure that some of them include real connections and interactions with others. Let us work in pursuit of a joyful abundant, love-filled life.

Inside each of us is an abundant supply of love, joy, peace, kindness, goodness and all that we need to give each other life, and give it abundantly.