learning to live with the discomfort of being human

Two observations and one point.
First observation:
A certain actor once said, if you want to make God laugh, tell him your plans. What are your plans? Surely like me you have a lot of plans for the school, you have a lot of plans for your retirement, you have lots and lots of plans for the community, you even have lots of plans today. If you want to humor God today, tell him about your plans. Life after all is not predictable.
Second observation.


I think I have read this somewhere, in a book entitled eat, pray, love. The author wrote about this so called Vipassana Meditation, a kind of Buddhist meditation wherein one sits down in meditation ten hours a day for ten days in stretches that last two to three hours. For two to three hours you just sit down and tell yourself - there is no reason I need to move at all for the next two to three hours. If you feel discomfort, do not move, just meditate on the discomfort. If you feel your buttocks is hurting, and your legs are aching, do not move, and stay with the discomfort. It is said that this kind of meditation teaches one to keep still no matter what happens, because in real life we tend to adjust ourselves every time we feel discomfort, every time we undergo physical, emotional and psychological discomfort - nagapaayun kita sa tanan nga sakit, sa tanan nga kabudlay, sa tanan nga kasubo. Why? in order to evade the reality of grief, to evade the reality of pain, annoyance, trouble, or whatever irritant we have in life. It is said that this mediation teaches one to be still amidst these discomforts so as to learn to accept the inevitable in life, the inevitability of pain and nuisance - that if you sit long enough, if you keep still long enough, these will pass away like everything else in this world. That’s the Vipassana Meditation. Learn to sit still even in the midst of discomfort for if you sit long enough the discomfort like everything else in this world will just pass.
What’s the point?
We worry a lot, we are anxious about a lot of things, we want to be in control. Jesus asked, can any of you by worrying add a single moment to your life-span? Can any of us by seeking and wrestling and fighting for control, if indeed we can, make our lives happier and more fulfilling? Sit still. Learn to trust. Will it do any good? Yes, when you learn to live with the discomfort of being human knowing, believing that all these, good or bad, pain or pleasure, beautiful or ugly will pass away anyway. Jesus never promised to make it easier for us. He simply said worrying will not add up to anything anyway. So sit still with the discomfort, sit still with the pain, sit still with the trouble, stay and do not move. And hold on strongly to the promise, hold on to the assurance that God will never forget you.