What do you do when you encounter something good? Probably the best thing to do is to simply enjoy it. When I’m sitting around a table doing puzzles with my Nana while watching football I believe the most important thing for me to do in that moment is to simply enjoy it. When you are in the midst of enjoying something good then there begins a shift of recognizing that goodness. A close friend and mentor Craig told me that a true sign of maturity is being able to recognize something great in the moment of that greatness. Once there has been a recognition of something good, then there needs to be a posture of gratefulness. When you recognize something to be good in a grateful manner, to me it means that this gratuity is beneficial not only to yourself. Gratuity empowers the lowly. One of my favorite parts of the new movie Wonka is that Willy maintains a posture of gratitude throughout the whole of his story, which in turn empowers all the people around him. Heck even the “bad” guys are able to recognize his goodness. In the case for my word this year, when you’ve found the goodness of something profound, you only want to go deeper.
Going deeper has a connection to a very meaningful love. It taps into emotions yet still holds a power in the infinite. Love in of itself is good. And having something that is good means that there is no limitation to pursuing it because ultimately it is eternal. Part of focusing on going deeper means holding the perspective that there is always something more meaningful worth going for. And there always is. It’s what we were created to be. We were created to be infinite. Finite status is simply just that… finite. If we are to start uncovering a more profound love then we have to approach our pursuit of that love from an eternal focus. And that will be my focus for 2024. That doesn’t mean that the pain is gone, but it does mean that there is something worth pursuing whether pain is present or not. The essential part is that the pain is not the focus. Love is. Love gives you the purpose and inspiration to focus on going deeper no matter what else might come into view. Deeper is a focal point, but it is also a choice. My choice this year is to focus on the ones who love in a way that takes me deeper.
Written January 2nd, 2024
Jake Wentworth 