TUESDAY
This week I’m asking you to journal on your concept of the good life and where the compass of your heart is directed.
Continuing from yesterday’s quote in, You Are What You Love, James K. A. Smith goes on to say,
“We are orientated by our longings, directed by our desires. We adopt ways of life that are indexed to such visions of the good life, not usually because we ‘think through’ our options…We aren’t really motivated by abstract ideas or pushed by rules and duties. Instead some panoramic tableau of what looks like flourishing has an alluring power that attracts us, drawing us toward it, and we thus live and work toward that goal.”
Smith, James K. A.. You Are What You Love (pp. 11-12). Baker Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.
Yesterday I had you write out your description of the good life. Today, I want you to identify the patterns in your life that have formed that idea of the good life in you.
Mark Sayers defines patterns as: “The inputs, habits, and rituals that shape our personal life architecture, determining the health of our life system.” - Reappearing Church: The Hope for Renewal in the Rise of Our Post-Christian Culture
Essentially, I’m asking you to answer the questions:
- Who told you that was the good life?
- Why do you think that is the good life?
- How has media (social media, television, movies, music, etc.) influenced this vision?
- What habits have led to this desire for the good life?
- What patterns in your family of origin have formed these ideas in you?