Lack to Life Changing

Bet you can come up with countless excuses for why you shouldn’t do something life altering. Bet there is a chorus of supporters out there sharing woes for why it can’t be done.

That’s a pipe dream. It’s ok to get rejected. Ground your expectations in today’s reality. Be reasonable. Life isn’t a freezer full of mint-chocolate chip ice cream. Okay, maybe that last one is only specific to my life.

But here is what bombards us:

1) A culture that markets consumption in every aspect of our lives

2) That same culture imploding with a lack-mindset – lack of time, money, influence, beauty, confidence, skills, opportunities, succulents. Yup…I really feel like I need some succulents and I’m gonna blame our culture.

Our small talk is stocked with what we don’t have and then we spend what little time we have searching for friends to join us in our pits of woe. Until we find a way to get that missing something, we spiral in unproductive efforts to seek solace...or succulents. See the dilemma.

And we wonder why mental health is becoming the cancer of our next generation.

Don’t get me wrong, I am the first to drop empathetic complaints in the coffee line. If that virus hadn’t taken down our entire family, I’d have made so much more progress on my blog post. And I’ll be the first to roll out the excuses at the gym. Tonight was an awesome example - If I’d cut my finger nails before coming, that 5-11 climb would have been so doable. But what does this accomplish, other than offering comradery in the muck of life.

When I was younger ... and less jaded ... I was annoyingly upbeat. So much so, that friends tuned out my blanket encouragement while they chugged their third cup of coffee or vodka to even out their internal wounds.This is something that I fully acknowledge came from a blessed childhood and developing a faith in something far greater than this world. But when God decides I need to grow like Job, I doubt I'll be anywhere near as buoyant, and I'll be honest, life has already started to deflate that life raft.

So there is balance.

Empathy has its place and is absolutely a necessary part of working through legitimate hurt. But what if our everyday lacks were not celebrated and reiterated, but shadowed by far bigger and more important conversations. What if they included words that shared laments, but ultimately encouraged, celebrated and inspired us to get past the muck?

What if we changed the way we approached life from a lack-model of living to an overflowing-with-possibilities-model. It’d be odd. Possibly annoying. Counter cultural. But it might change a small piece in the world for the better.

When I can pull myself out of the normal woe-pits and take on this mindset, I take on loftier goals, I include others in my irrational plans and I brave sharing one humble voice that may never be read or heard but it might also set in motion a trickle of change.

Is mine a personality flaw or an asset? Depends on how you look at it.

But here’s the thing. Each of us is unique, and yet we all act the same unless we take time to separate ourselves from what culture wants us to be.

So put it out there. What is one crazy, irrational goal that you want to accomplish despite our lack-culture mindset? And how might it change to world in ways far beyond you?

This post is a highly edited, mulled over version of the Five Minute Friday Blogging Community prompt for Lack. Please come join in the fun as we chat and inspire one another to bravely write using a one word prompt.