Pacifica Stories

"I lift up my eyes to the mountains—where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth." 

As I set the table for reflection and conversation, let me share two options regarding human flourishing. We can look inward at ourselves, or we can look upward toward God. Most of the chatter in our society encourages us to look inward to our desires, passions, dreams, thoughts, and feelings. Certainly, some thoughts, feelings, desires, and dreams are good and will lead us down the right road. However, if you are like me, you also know that some of our thoughts, feelings, and desires, the things inside us, lead us astray and make less of us. How do we determine which things inside us are good, should be vigorously pursued, and which things will hurt us and should be avoided?

I would advise, as the Psalmist encourages us, to LOOK UP. Looking up to God, who loves us, knows us, and created us, for Wisdom is something to consider. This is not the conventional wisdom from our culture that pushes us to look inside to the self for all the answers. We can look in, taking counsel from ourselves, or we can look up, taking counsel from God. In my experience, when I look to God, he makes more of my passions, dreams, feelings, and thoughts and helps me discard those things in my life that need to go. At Pacifica, our goal is to think and live well, to flourish; perhaps looking up to God will lead us closer to our goal.