Abundant Living

It's been a beautiful Sunday afternoon; one of those sneak-peaks at Spring we often get here in Georgia in late February. I have just come inside from washing our cars.

As my family can attest I have always enjoyed washing the cars. No matter how I'm feeling, just getting out there giving our cars a good scrubbing always seems to put me in a better mood.

This afternoon I was torn about whether to pull out the hose and bucket at all because the forecast for tomorrow is rain. As I talked it over with Donna we agreed that washing the cars could be a waste of time and energy, not to mention soap and water. But when it came right down to it, I decided to wash them anyway, regardless of what tomorrow holds.

As I was wrapping up the job and admiring the sheen on the cars it hit me that many things we do in life are ultimately futile if you think about it. We wash clothes, and then wear them and they're dirty again. We eat food knowing a few hours later we'll be hungry again. For that matter we get out of bed each morning knowing full well that we'll be right back in the bedroom pulling down the covers again in a few hours; why not just stay in bed all the time?  You get the drift of my thinking.

The answer I came up with as I pulled our clean cars into the garage is that all the stuff we do, even the stuff that may seem like a waste of time, is not a waste of time. In fact this "stuff" is what our life is made of. It's what life is all about!

So where am I going with this? Well, let me mention a couple of Bible verses - things Jesus himself said. The first is Matthew 6:34, "Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own." The second is John 10:10 "The thief (Satan) comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come so that they (you and me) may have life and have it to the full."

These scriptures remind us to live for today and to live every moment of each day to the fullest. They also teach that the enemy's strategy is to steal life from us bit by bit by keeping us worried about what tomorrow may bring, or by whether or not we'll have what we need (scarcity mentality). Meanwhile, we're missing out on today. I'm not saying planning and working toward the future is wrong, but it is when we do so at the expense of what God may be showing us or wanting us to do or experience in the present moment.

Some of you like me are unemployed right now. Being unemployed is a sure-fire recipe for worry, doubt and a scarcity mentality. If that describes you, remember these two verses, straight from the mouth of Jesus. Live for today! Go wash your car! Don't worry about the weather! Refuse to live in fear and doubt and stand instead in the light of God's abundant life. That's definitely God's plan for you; the Bible says so.

Before You Go

Last month one of the people I was closest to in the whole world passed away. He was a cousin of mine and we were only three months apart in age. He and I were best buddies our entire lives; we had so much fun together. For those of you who have heard me tell stories about going to Mississippi, this was the cousin I always went and stayed with, usually 2-3 times a year. His death was tragic, and quite a blow to us all, especially his immediate family down in Mississippi. I miss him so much! (today was a very bad day).

Since his demise I’ve been thinking a lot about death, and about life. His passing has led me to question how I’m living my own life, what I have, or have not accomplished, my relationships, and where things stand in my life right now. It’s been quite an emotional and gut-wrenching journey to say the least. 

My cousin’s earthly journey has ended. His life can be looked back upon now using the past tense, “he was”… “he did” … “remember when” … and so forth. His life is all in the book now and can be analyzed and thought through. I believe he is at peace now, total peace, and I thank God for that. But for many of us closest to him, his death has caused questions to come up in our minds. In my case it's questions like: “What’s do I want to accomplish before I die?” Have I left things undone? Am I using my years wisely? Am I using them the way God would have me use them?" "Are there things my children will look back on some day and wonder why I did or didn't do them?" In other words, I am asking something we should all consider, "What will my legacy be?" When the book on your life comes to a close, whether sooner or later, what will be written in its pages? 

These are profound questions that require a lot of thought and prayer. Truth is, they will make your head hurt if you think about them for too long. But we all need to think about them some. I’m in the middle of a job search right now; in fact I’m in the midst of possibly reorienting my entire vocational life; and that, combined with grieving the loss of one of my best friends, gives these questions an intensity that I can’t even begin to express. Just writing this to you makes me feel better though. Thanks for that.

I don’t have my  answers, at least not yet. But let me ask you, dear reader, what do you want to accomplish before you die? What do you want your legacy to be? Are you living your life in such a way so that what you hope for will be so when your life reaches its final chapter? Let me challenge you to reflect on that. Do it with pen and paper in hand so you can write down what you discover.  

I’m not trying to be morbid, or to wear you out, but this is important. You may or may not get any answers as you think through the process. If not, remember the wise words of poet Nancy Willard who once said, “Sometimes questions are more important than answers.” God bless you as you do this. God bless us all.

Lights, Camera, Action

I did something interesting lately; I was an extra on a television show being filmed in Atlanta. An extra is someone in the background of a film or TV show who is paid to stand around, or walk by, or sit attentively, making everything look more natural in a scene that is being filmed. Extras are seldom given lines to say, but sometimes, if you’re lucky, you get a line or two. The role I played recently was as “opposing team coach” in a lacrosse scene. I stood on the sidelines clapping my hands and shouting “coachy” things to my players on the field. I paced, I fretted, I looked totally involved in the game; I got into my role! Forget the fact that I know nothing about lacrosse and that there really were no players on the field; in fact it wasn’t really even a lacrosse field. That’s not what being an extra is about; you just have to look like you’re doing what you are supposed to be doing. In other words, you have to be natural and you have to be convincing.

A lot of the work of being an extra involves sitting around waiting for your scene to be shot, or once your scene is being filmed, you wait while the scene is shot and reshot and the director finally yells, “That’s a wrap!” There are so many things I could write about being an extra: The great people you meet, seeing “stars” up close, the amazing technical and logistical issues of filming, the elaborate wardrobes, the long hours, the pecking order on the set, the vision of the director and they go about communicating it, and so forth.

One thing I’ve learned for sure is how important extras are. Now when I look at a television show or a movie, I’m consciously watching the extras to see how they act. Have you ever noticed them? Without extras, scenes would be terribly unnatural. Being an extra has also given me a sense of how important everyone around us is. I’m afraid that often times we go through life viewing others around us as “extras.” We are all extras in other people’s lives, and we see them as extras in ours: the clerk behind the counter, the waitress at the restaurant, the mailman, the woman walking her dog, etc… In truth, each and every one of the people in the background of our lives has a story; they have dreams and aspirations, they have spouses, and kids, and parents. In other words, everybody is a somebody in someone’s life; nobody is truly an “extra.” I'm sure that's how God sees us, and how he'd like us to see one another.

That’s at least one takeaway from my fledgling acting career, and a great reminder to us all. See you on the big screen!

What A Man Knows

No, I have not fallen off the face of the earth. Things have just gotten a bit off-kilter around here. So much has been going on in my life and in the world, so much that could be said; so much that should be said; good things and bad things. Believe me, I'm filing it all away for future posts. As soon as I get my taxes put together for my accountant, and a little further down the road on a couple of other projects, I plan to get back to blogging regularly. Thank-you for your patience my friends!

In the meantime, here's a thought worth thinking, especially for you guys out there who are my age. It comes from Adlai Stevenson:

What a man knows at fifty that he did not know at twenty is, for the most part, incommunicable. All the observations about life which can be communicated handily are as well known to the man at twenty who has been attentive as to a man at fifty. He has been told them all, he has read them all, but he has not lived them all. What he knows at fifty that he did not know at twenty is not the knowledge of formulas or forms of words but of people, places, actions, a knowledge not gained by words but by touch, sight, sound, victories, failures, sleeplessness, devotion, love - the human experiences and emotions of this earth and oneself and other people; and perhaps too a little faith and a little reverence for things you cannot see.

Quoted in Harold Kushner, When All You've Ever Wanted Isn't Enough, Fireside, 2002, p. 111-112