January 1998

Dear Friends,

This past year a person I know was shot and wounded by an ex-spouse.  Several other friends in their mid-30’s have had heart attacks.  Another separated from a 20 year marriage because she was unsure if she still loved her husband.  Numerous people I know went to counselling for addictions in their lives.  Several parents were frustrated trying to understand why their teen-age children periodically run away from home.  The list could go on for pages, filled with people I know somewhere in the world, whose lives are falling apart.

For all the progress we have made - it seems that we’re going backwards.  Society has spun an illusion - propagated a myth that success in the material, educational or technological world - will make us happy.  It’s a lie.  While we have made progress in these areas, Dr. Richard Swenson, author of a book called Margin, says our pain has increased in our social world (with family, friends, neighbours) and in our psychological world (feelings, attitudes).  Our spiritual world has become more confused as well.

What a tragedy - for you and I know that life is more than physical and intellectual success.  Indeed, the most important part of our lives (and incidentally where we find the most joy and pain) is our relationships.

“. . . progress builds by using the tools of economics, education, and technology.  But what are the tools of the relational life?  Are they not the social (my relationship to others), the emotional (my relationship to myself), and the spiritual (my relationship to God)?  None of the tools of progress has helped build the relational foundation our society requires.”

                 Margin - Restoring Emotional, Physical, Financial, and Time Reserves to Overloaded Lives by Richard A. Swenson, M.D.

In a land of plenty we are starving for intimacy and love.  Is this not the essence of the great commandment by Jesus?

           “The most important commandment . . .is this: ‘. . .  Love the Lord you God   

             with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with       

              all your strength.’  The second is this: ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’  

             There is no commandment greater than these.”                    Mark 12:29-31(NIV)

Let us begin 1998 with the true recipe for a fulfilling life - it is a matter of the heart; the love it receives and the love it gives to God, to each other and to ourselves.

Blessings,

Thomas Cooper

                                                                                                                        Volume VII, Issue 1

01-98.DOC/0-XXX-00