So, it’s almost February – How are you doing with your resolutions, uh, I mean goals, so far this year? We talked a couple of weeks ago about how there would be challenges in the way of our goals, and I gave you a few of my own as well. So how are you coming along so far? Leave me a comment, or shoot me an email and let me know – I’d love to hear from you.
Today though, I want to talk about something I’ve been thinking a lot about, especially recently. The idea is this: Life is Bigger Than the Living (hence the post title).
What I mean by that, is that everyone who is living currently around the world, is just plain and simply, living. There’s no magic formula for being able to live. Certainly there are things you can do to “improve” your state of living – at least in a privileged nation such as ours – but there’s really not much you can do to change your experience as being among those who have lived, and are living. My point? No one has life figured out. Life is bigger than we, the living.
Occasionally, we’ll come across important reminders of this, and we’ll remember, we don’t have any idea what’s going to happen tomorrow (or even the rest of today?!). This happened to me this past Friday as I was headed out of town to play a gig with my dad and Mundo Earwood in Boerne that evening. It was 8:35am, and I hadn’t even made it out of walking distance from my home in Bryan yet, when suddenly, I had about half a second to react to the Jeep Grand Cherokee that was about to smash into my truck practically head on. Needless to say, I couldn’t react in time, and being that she never saw me, and never slowed down, we hit pretty hard (hard enough to total my truck) right there on a small street with a 30 mph speed limit. Didn’t expect that to happen that morning when I woke up!
Luckily, I’m okay, and so is she. It could have been much worse, but it’s these types of things that usually shake life up for us – remind us that we really don’t have everything figured out. For me, it’s been a crazy couple of months, so I’d be lying if I said this was even the most unexpected thing that’s happened in the past 6 weeks – BUT, it reinforces my point nonetheless.
So with all of that in mind, here’s my concluding thought: If you’ve got a dream, a goal, a passion, an idea, or something inside you that gets you excited, gets your heart racing, or maybe even makes you think on a different level, GO DO IT. Don’t wait for approval from those critics in your life, who become voices in your head. Don’t wait until you have everything figured out. Don’t make apologies or excuses for not having been the person you know you’re capable of becoming. Put yourself out there, flaws and all, and be okay with the fact that some people aren’t going to be okay with that. Remember, they don’t have it all figured out, but neither do you. You’re not going to know exactly how it will turn out – but isn’t that what makes life fun?
I’d love to know what you think about all this. Shoot me your thoughts below, or track me down on Facebook, Twitter, & Google+ even if it’s just to say “hey”. And, If you’re curious about how to truly live with this kind of freedom, freedom from fear, here are a couple more words of encouragement from God’s Word:
“Come now, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow, we shall go to such and such a city, and spend a year there and engage in business and make a profit.’ Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away. Instead, you ought to say, ‘If the Lord wills, we shall live and also do this or that.’”
– James 4:13-15“I say to you, do not be anxious for your life, as to what you shall eat, or what you shall drink; nor for your body, as to what you shall put on. Is not life more than food, and the body than clothing?”
– Matthew 6:25 (also continue reading through the end of the chapter for more on this point)“There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death.”
– Romans 8:1-2
