We all have secrets in our hearts. I’ll tell you one of mine.

I have struggled with the idea that with enough resolve I could take complete charge of my life. With tenacious persistence I could become a best selling author. Instruction, practice and steadfast  experience would make me a renowned speaker. Positive thinking would engender enduring happiness.

As a result I found myself driven toward impossible goals leaving me feeling inadequate when I failed to accomplish these lofty aspirations.

Some of you are probably not as crazily ambitions as I am, but I bet most of us believe that the proper attitude can transform us into skilled and fulfilled human beings. Bad feelings can be eradicated. Good feelings, amplified. We can have a great day, everyday for the rest of our lives. Attitude is everything. All of this leads to frustration and a fake life.

There’s nothing wrong with hard work. That’s the American credo: robust individualism, self-determination, freedom. A resolute life can yield success, accomplishment, admiration. But it fails to give our lives meaning.

I suspect that a much deeper secret resides in the heart of most of us: The desire to give ourselves to something beyond personal desires and ambitions. Beyond resolve lies the wonder of life. The joy of living day-by-day. The essence of being wherever we are, whatever we’re doing. All of us can open our hearts to the awesome simplicity of spiritual truth, to giving and receiving, to the love of God.