The Examined Life

5/5/12

Well, I’m a little late, but better late than never.  So I promised myself I would blog once per month this year for two reasons: 1) to make sure I’m pausing, thinking, pondering, reflecting and being intentional in my life and 2) to keep searching and learning and sharing (just in case one might benefit from it).  So my one important message to you today is (if you haven’t already), STOP, PAUSE, REFLECT ON YOUR LIFE.  Where are you at?  Where are you going?  How are you going to get there?  Yesterday is gone and life is short.  Don’t let a day slip by without intentionally living the life you want to live. 

Reminds me of one of my favorite Switchfoot songs  “This is your life, are you who you want to be?”

Check it out on You Tube:  http://youtu.be/SWArhq3FUEY

Feel free to stop here.  My primary message has been delivered.  Read on if you’d like to hear one man examine his own life…

This is my snap shot examination of my life.  My life has been full of many journeys, ups, downs, etc. and I hope there are several chapters still to be written, but for this one moment in time…

I honestly think I’m in one of the happiest phases of my life.  Happily married to the love of my life.  Love my home, commute, job, friends, family, rhythm of life.  I want for nothing (as an aside, see the “funny story” below).  I’m in a pretty dang good spot.  Am I busy?  Yes.  Is everything so right I have nothing to ask God for? No, but the things I ask for are for God’s truth, reality and the gospel of Grace to fill people’s life so that their lives may be full of peace, joy, contentment, purpose, etc.  As long as we live in an imperfect world, I will always have requests for God’s help/intervention. 

So as I look at this snap shot of this very happy/content/peace-filled time of my life, I step back and say, “so now what?”  And for me, for now, I don’t have a huge master plan that I am building.  I’m not in school aiming for a degree.  My pace up the corporate ladder has greatly slowed which is fine.  I would like to have kids (which would greatly change the snap shot :)) and I would like to retire (also a very different phase) but for now, those things will come in their time.  So for now, day by day, what am I driving at?  What is my hustle applied to?  I think for now, for today, my charge to myself is “to do it more and do it better” and it for me is life. 

It = life.  Life for me is to love more, to be sensitive to the needs of others, listen, learn.  Life to me is to be my true self (to me and others) which is one especially loved by God (peace, joy, contentment, etc.).  I’d like to pray more.  I’d like to listen and learn more (from God, Bible, etc.). 

Self examination DONE.  Action plan (though somewhat vague) IN PLACE

And now for a “funny story”:  A few paragraphs above I said “I want for nothing” (which is true, I’m in a good place) but the funny part is my interpretation of Psalm 23 when I was a kid.  The verse says, “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want” and as I kid, I thought this meant that even thought I didn’t want the Lord to be my shepherd, tough, He was gonna be my shepherd whether I wanted Him or not!  I thought the writer was be honest and saying, I don’t want the Lord to be my shepherd even though He’s God and if He wants to be my shepherd, there’s nothing I can do about it.  Yes, this is a little funny, but it also shows how easy it is to mis-interpret scripture and have it paint a very different picture of God, because frankly, my understanding as a child was far far from accurate.  Now, in my mature state, I understand this scripture to say, that “The Lord is my caretaker/shepherd and I will have everything that I need so I will not be in want” which applies if I live under the reality that God is God and I am a mere mortal.  He does indeed, take care of all my needs which is especially evident in today’s snap shot, but also true in the other, not so happy snap shots. 

Thanks for reading!!