This came to me in email today - profoundly impacting to me; my reaction follows. I'll possibly make this my next blog posting, but am sharing this with you all now, for many of you are from my generation, and some know me well enough to relate to this and my viewpoints.
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A French proverb says, "Forty is the old age of youth and fifty is the youth of old age." So according to the French, I am still a young person, relatively speaking.
However, my wife and I went to a movie theater the other day, where I noticed they give discounts to seniors. So I asked for one regular and one senior admission, expecting to be questioned about it. But without any hesitation, the young employee just gave me my ticket.
I am at a point in my life called "middle age," which I wouldn't mind so much if I only knew a few more 100-year-olds. When you are middle-aged, you begin to wonder who put the quicksand in the hourglass of time, because your days, months, and years go by so quickly.
So let me ask you, what story is your life telling? My story is a simple one: God can take a mess of a life with the deck stacked against it and redeem it. That is my story. What is yours? We all have a story to tell. And we all need to take stock of our lives and ask, "What is my life all about? What is the legacy that I will leave? How will I be remembered?"
It is really important to not only think of this as you are getting older, but it is also crucial to think about when you are young, because that is when you are charting the course your life will take. That is when you are developing habits and making decisions like the career path you will follow and the person you will marry.
You will decide the evening of your life by the morning of it, or the end by the beginning. So make the right choices.
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I don't know if this is really pertinent to me - or any of you - or not. For my life seems to have been not one book with chapters, but literally different books. Chronologically, I would say my books are:
- 0-17
- 17-38
- 38-53
- after 53
I say this because each segment has unique and distinct stories, each with a basis all its own. Certainly, many fundamentals learned in childhood and adolesence are still present, it is very much segmented into distinct values, actions, motivations and realities.
I believe I have shelved the idea of leaving a legacy, for that tends to be feeding my pride and ego, and fostering an artificial intention to be something positive in the minds of others (instead of just for God). In the human experience; the closest I can come to being focused on that is trying to teach my sons some of what it took me decades to learn. In some cases, very adult themes and concepts; in other cases, basics of living a good and proper life as God would want it.
I also believe it is never too late to chart a new course, create new habits, make decisions differently from a perspective that is new, and conduct a life and lead a lifestyle that is more akin to what God would want, as opposed to what I might want.
- Attitudes of gratitude, combined with new and good habits, become "Habitudes" (Google that to see what a teacher has done with it). My glass has always been more than half-full. I have been improperly motivated to fill it to overflowing, which has caused many a spill-over affect time and again.l
- Reduce, and if possible, stop altogether, being a complainer; instead, openly appreciate all that I have and all that is right in the world, and not focus on what I don't have or what is not going right in the world. And then take whatever steps I can to improve something that's wrong in the world; even if its not going to make a bit of difference to me or benefit me in any way, I will feel good inside for having contributed something in whatever way I can.
- Learning the full impact that God gave us two ears, two eyes, and one mouth, and to start using them proportionately (talk only 20% of the time). My life has been far too much about telling everyone whatever it was I thought was important for them to hear, and I time for me to shut up and listen - really listen. Yet, I realize that I now talk a lot through my fingertips, so I wonder how that factor's into this communication strategy?
Your thoughts?
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3 comments:
...well, it factors in this way: we read deeply or scan lightly and pick up what we may. No different than any other situation. While in Tennessee this last week I learned a new (to me) phrase..."It Is What It Is"...
I think your finger tips speak well. We've never spoken much but if truth be told I can see where you might have been wordy fella. Kind of in the, this is what I know kind of way. I know a few people quilty of that. I think some of that comes from having a personality that can command a room and in that command it would be natural to spill forth.
inspirational. thought provoking.
I like this bit:
- Reduce, and if possible, stop altogether, being a complainer; instead, openly appreciate all that I have and all that is right in the world, and not focus on what I don't have or what is not going right in the world. And then take whatever steps I can to improve something that's wrong in the world; even if its not going to make a bit of difference to me or benefit me in any way, I will feel good inside for having contributed something in whatever way I can.
Less is more. Be a GIVER.
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