Luci Swindoll - Simple Secrets to a Happy Life

simple secrets to
a happy life

Luci Swindoll

2012 by Luci Swindoll

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Page design by Mandi Cofer.

Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture quotations are taken from The Message by Eugene H. Peterson. 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000. Used by permission of NavPress Publishing Group. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked KJV are from the KING JAMES VERSION.

Scripture quotations marked NASB are from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE, The Lockman Foundation 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995. Used by permission.

Scripture quotations marked NIV are from HOLY BIBLE: NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION. 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked NLT are from Holy Bible, New Living Translation. 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked NKJV are from THE NEW KING JAMES VERSION. 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

The source of some of the maxims and statements quoted in this volume are not known. Readers who can document the source are asked to contact the publisher so correct attribution can be added to future printings.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Swindoll, Luci, 1932

Simple secrets to a happy life / Luci Swindoll.

p. cm.

ISBN 978-1-4002-0353-6

1. Christian life. 2. Conduct of life. 3. Happiness--Religious aspects--Christianity. I. Title.

BV4501.3.S965 2012

248.4--dc23

2011038357

Printed in the United States of America

12 13 14 15 16 QGF 6 5 4 3 2 1

To my mother, Lovell Lundy Swindoll, who died forty years ago at the age of sixty-three while writing a book she never finished. In her honor, I dedicate this book to her. In the front of Mothers Bible, which she read every day, was this verse: That our sons may be as plants grown up in their youth; that our daughters may be as corner stones, polished after the similitude of a palace (Psalm 144:12 KJV). She prayed and believed that for both of my brothers and me.

Contents

{ FOREWORD }
An Immersion in
Matters of the Soul

If you knew Luci Swindoll, you would know that there is no way to capture her in a way that does justice to that crystalline mind of hers, her exuberance and wild spirit, her great huge tender heart. Im not going to try, even on the occasion of Simple Secrets to a Happy Life, her marvelous, rich new book. But there are a few things I can share with you about her.

I have known her intimately for a dozen or so years. I adore her, and yes, that profound faith of hers is one thing I love, something that has, in her books, helped me more over the years than I can say. Yes, her hilarious sense of humor and timing are so delightfulsometimes gentle, sometimes acerbicthat they cause me to feel simultaneously blessed and jealous. Theres no one kinder. And of course, she can casually recite to you one of the worlds most significant poems, render it elegant and accessible at the same time, blow you away with her ability to have memorized so many of the great poems of all time, which youve just got to love in a personespecially if you yourself have grown to be someone who can barely remember to take your socks off before getting in the shower. Here she is, reciting Sailing to Byzantium, or a Shakespearean sonnet, without being a show-off about itbut instead because she is a giver of light, and the poem maybe amplifies a point of faith or history that you were talking about.

Now, normally, I do not like to be around people who are quite so highly accomplished, because it makes me feel somewhat inadequate. Im a drop-out, while here she was a cartographer for Mobil Oil, and sang opera professionally, and has read every single literary classic, and can discuss them, and make you laugh during this discussion, plus throw the lights on for you, AND on top of it all, speaks to gigantic audiences as a member of the Women of Faith, and has written a dozen books of her own, and blah blah blah. What ev, as the teenagers say. But I forgive Lucis accomplishments because while shes a classicist, shes also totally cool, actively cooland I dont just mean the haircut. Shes au courant with the great music, poetry, and issues of our time, even while rattling off Edna St. Vincent Millay. The thing is that around Luci, youre not with someone who is giving herself airs, but rather someone who is an agent for the life-giving artistic coolness of God, the way a clarinet is an agent for the Mozart concerto.

So, heres the problem: we met a dozen or so years ago, when I had lunch with the Women of Faith, and of course I fell in love with them all because, I tell you, they make a girl weak in the knees, and I wanted to follow them around for the rest of my life like a little dog, lapping up their joyful, contagious Christian wisdom. And then there was Luci. Shes sturdy, maybe zaftig, stylishly white haired, beautiful as a model, a font of knowledge and faith, and yet one of lifes great listeners, who made me laugh and who clearly thought I was the funniest, snappiest piece of cheese in the world.

Naturally, I thought it meant we were soul mates.

And I have felt this ever since I met her, that we have a special connection of the heart and soul, as women who love to read and laugh and write and dance and be silly, who both love to hide in their studies and travel the world, who love their friends and their solitude, more than anything on earth, except for our guy Jesus. Weve become dear friends. I know I could call her from anywhere in the world and ask her for helpto wire me funds, or simply listen, to pray with me and share the exact right line of Scripture, or make me laugh about our shared humanity and occasional ridiculousness. But the soul mate thing is ever so slightly more complicated because it turns out she has this effect on everyone. Everyone falls in love with her. Everyone reads one of her books and wants to know this woman personally. Everyone, upon meeting her or hearing her talk onstage, feels that sweet sense of connection, where it seems that she is sharing from her plainest, deepest self, and seeing into yours, and seeing who you are, and loving that, as is, without needing to change you, or fix you, or set you straight. Shes the worlds soul mate. She is best friends with Jesus, so she shares from abundance, and lives from her core, of tenderness and humor and curiosity. She just wants to share her amazement and gratitude for Christs love, and the light with which He imbues our earth and our lives.

Of course, when I first realized that she has this effect on everyone, I grew bitter. But only for a few minutes. The truth is that I do get to have Luci as my soul mate in this life, and that a person cant be with Luci or read her work without feeling immersed in matters of the soul: our joys and sorrow; our opportunities to live big and wild and alive; our freedom; our salvation.