About two months ago I sat down with a man who has graciously agreed to meet with me once a month and simply allow me to learn from him. He has lived well for over six decades, faithfully serving God, and continuing to become more like Christ. He is a man I greatly admire and feel truly blessed to know.
Over the past few months he has been challenging me, and in the process preparing me, for what comes after this current stage of my life. Right now I'm at a point where I have two choices. One I can settle where I am. I have a job with unbelievable perks and benefits. It isn't the most exciting job, and after a while it does take a physical toll on you, but the compensation, for many, is worth it. Option two requires something of me. It requires me to push myself and seek something more than just settling for a job that makes sense to stay at. It involves taking risks and trying to go for what I really want to do. It involves looking at my current situation as a training ground, a place and time of preparation for what is waiting for me if I'm willing to take the risk.
Over the past few months I've come to the realization that my life will be what I make it. That is not to say that God is not sovereign, or that He does not have an overall plan that will be accomplished because it has to be. It is not saying that God does not have the final say on my life or destiny. What it is saying is that God has brought me to a fork in the river of life. One channel is calm waters. No waves, no rocks, very slow current. It's safe and involves no risk. The other channel is class five whitewater. There are no guarantees, of making it through alive, but it offers an exciting ride. And if you don't make it, at least you go out with your boots on.
My life will be what I make it. My choice here, now, in this moment, will determine what I say on my death bed. It will determine if I die with regrets over the choices I made, or satisfied that I at least tried.
Tomorrow, I officially launch my raft into the rapids. I begin a five year and three month, 108 credit hour journey towards two Master's degrees. Total honesty, it's a daunting task. More than once this past week I've been overwhelmed by the thought of all of it, and even an hour ago thought about dropping it all and playing it safe. But I don't want to be that guy. I want to be the man that at the very least went for it.
My life will be what I make it, and I want it to be lived in faith, pursuing what God is offering to me. I want the courage to go after it, and if I fail, at least I gave it all I had. I don't know what is waiting for me at the end of this journey. I have a hope of what is waiting at the end, but there is no guarantee that it is going to be there. The uncertainty is what gives me the moments of hesitation, but if I give into that when I reach the end of this life all I'll be thinking is "What if I had gone for it? What if I would have taken the risk?"
Teddy Roosevelt once said, "It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat."
I want to be the man in the arena, face marred because I've put it all out there. And if I fail, atleast I dared greatly. I want to be that man, let's see what I make of my life.
"I have been young and now I am old, yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken or his descendants begging bread."
To God alone be the Glory!
Peace be with you
