One thing always leads to another.
That’s pretty much the way the world works, isn’t it?
Sometimes the “one thing” leads to something awesome, like me deciding to get on eHarmony in 2010 and how that led to my marriage with Audrey. The online dating platform is struggling, or so I’ve read, but my in-life relationship with Audrey is sealed forever (or multiple forevers, as I often tell her).
On the other hand, sometimes the “one thing” leads to something not-so-spectacular, like just about any story that begins with someone saying, “Hold my beer and watch this.”
So, I wondered, what would happen if we could look at the things we desire in life and reverse engineer the string of “one things” that leads to them? Then we could do those things.
I’m thinking less about tangible things that we might desire like a pontoon boat and more about conceptual things like joy and wisdom.
It just so happens that plenty of people way smarter than me have already given this some thought, and I purloined some of their conclusions and combined them into something useful for me.
Maybe it’s useful for you, too.
We all could use some joy and wisdom, right?
Here’s how I see it (based on what smart people tell me):
Start with curiosity. Curiosity leads to humility, because you can’t be genuinely curious if you think you know everything.
Humility then leads to gratitude, because you realize how thankful you are to know what you know and to have what you have, especially given how little you actually know.
Gratitude leads to joy because with gratitude you operate in ways that aren’t tied to your circumstances. You might not always be happy, but the trials of life don’t steal your peace or contentment. What you have is more important than what ails you or what you lack. And since you know God loves you unconditionally, you always have more than you deserve or need. So, you persevere with your inner joy intact.
And that’s wisdom.
There are some traps along the way. For instance, curiosity leads to knowledge, but knowledge can lead us in one of two directions.
It can take us toward awe and wonder that leads to humility, gratitude and then joy and wisdom. Or it can draw us toward certainty that leads to arrogance that leads to ingratitude. And there is no joy or wisdom with ingratitude.
Either way, one thing will lead to another. We just have to decide where we want to go.
Note 1: Credit for several of these ideas, especially the good ones, goes to the podcast Not Dead Yet, Episode 5 with Mike Rowe as the guest of Ben Sasse and Chris Stirewalt.
Note 2: Onesimus: The Fugitive Who Found Grace is scheduled for release in March, but you can preorder it now from your favorite online bookseller. That has nothing to do with this blog except that it would be one thing that leads to gratitude in my heart.
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