You are the determiner of how you deal with life. Life may land on your lap, but what comes next is your choice. I know you have felt at the mercy of life. Sometimes you have felt that life beleaguers you, takes pot shots at you, is even out to get you. But life isn’t personal to you, beloveds. You happen to be there, like at a baseball game. The game plays. You watch the game. You cheer. You boo. But the game is irrespective of you. You happen to sit on one side or another in your mind, and so, depending upon how the ball is hit, you are inflated or deflated. The score is important to you. You think it is the score you cheer about. It is your own love of the game that you cheer. It is your own enthusiasm that you cheer, or your own disappointment you bemoan. The beautiful thing is that a game plays before you. What has happened? Nothing has happened. Numbers have been written on a score board. Tomorrow other numbers replace them. Other games will be played.

Life has no score to settle. Life is as innocent as you. Life is more innocent. It makes no predictions of its own. The sun shines every day. Whatever clouds may cover it, the sun is shining for you. Without fail, the sun shines. What a glorious thing! There is a sun, and it shines. And it shines on you. Do cartwheels in the sun.

Just think of it – you are under the sun. Take the sun personally. Bask in it. It is for you. The sun is your destiny. You are destined for it, and its fate is to shine on you with all its light. Smile back at the sun. Be a sun worshipper in the highest sense. Be an appreciator of life.

Whether you feel up or down, you are in the spectacle of life. Life is spectacular. Be impressed with the precocity of daily life. It is ever bestowed upon you. You are served it day and night. It comes to you eagerly. Be eager for it.

You do not always get what you want at Christmas, but, still, you get Christmas.

Life is not always just how you like it, yet you have it full-blown in front of you. You have mixed feelings about life. You pull it to you. You push it away. You take it back. You flail at it. You caress it. Life is consistent in that it always arrives. It comes right up to you every day. It looks you straight in the eye. It says:

“Here I am. This is what I look like today. Whatever I may look like, I am life, and I am yours. You cannot return me. You can only accept me, and walk hand in hand with me. Don’t waste your time protesting my appearance. I am here. This is my mien today. Smile at me anyway. Even if I am disheveled, you can welcome me. Tomorrow I will wear new clothes. You think I make you happy or unhappy. All I can do is deliver myself to you.

“I am like a car that has pulled up at the curb for you. Perhaps you wanted another car. Perhaps you wanted a sports car or a van or a limousine. But this is the car that arrived for you today. Cheerfully get in. A car is here for you to ride in. Get in. Take God for a spin. See the sights. See where this car takes you. Another tour awaits you tomorrow.”