Desire More is A Real Path to Life

Really? Desire More is the path to life? Doesn’t desire cause our problems?

So, I grew up in a family where my parents saw emotion and desire as the enemy. This led me to have a favorite color of gray and really a gray life.

I first discovered that God wanted me to feel when I was 25. However, that does not mean I could clear away all the wrong attitudes and habits I had.

I married a woman who is very alive, but my lack of life rather dragged her down. Finally, I got more professional help and her life started to bloom again. Hurray!

Buddhism Says No To All Desire

However, I still have a long way to go. I moved to China for God in 1991 and learned more about Buddhism. Buddha discovered that desire is what causes misery. So, he determined he and all Buddhists needed to stop desiring and when they had no desire they could cease to exist. Buddha felt everyone was stuck in the process of death and rebirth in the nightmare he called life. So ceasing to exist means you got to escape the nightmare.

Anyway, I was struck by how my Scandinavian American family could seek a path of no desire without any Buddhist influence.

Onward, my youngest child asks for a lot and asks with a lot of passion. If we say no, she is disappointed but moves on with her life and finds other things. She is a lot more alive than me. I ask for little and try to ask for even less. However, it makes my life so gray.

More Desire Makes Us More Alive!

Suddenly, a month ago watching my daughter I suddenly realized that desire is the path to life.  To escape my gray life, I need to desire more and ask for more.

When I watch my wife and daughter, I see that they are not greedy hedonists at all. They care for and love others. The two of them are more fun. They are good at being silly for example.

I have some 6 pocket shorts that I really like. They are all fraying and old. I just wear. 2 weeks ago, I realized that I should get a new pair in China which seemed hard actually.  However, we bought one easily and these shorts make me happy.

This sounds like materialism. Let’s think more.

My daughter will say, “Mom, can you make Chinese noodles tonight?” She inspires my dear wife to make them. Then, she thoroughly enjoys them.   God help me to do the same. God made a world that is so clearly alive and filled with color. Why do I live in my no color blah world? God wants me to touch joy, and I see it in my family. I need to find my desires and express them. Jesus never said that our desires are bad. The book of James says we are dragged away by evil desires.

Jesus was so far from being a gray person that they accused him of being a glutton.  Jesus did not apologize, but lived on his life full of life. May I follow Him and be more alive like Jesus and these examples around me.

Might, I add that they also show more sorrow than me. I also have sorrow but hide it too often. The sorrow my daughter shows leads to connection with her family. It is like a warm sorrow. Something that heals us all.