What if today you chose to stop believing every limiting word, action and experience that has brought you to this place? To this moment? To this seminal event in your life? What if this is the day that you say “I choose to believe in me. I choose to believe that I was made for greater purpose. Today, I choose to walk forward into the life of impact that I was created to contribute to this World.” Empowering words of affirmation and more importantly, words that are truth about your life. What if today you chose to reject the lies of regret, guilt and shame and believe, truly believe that you are wonderfully and marvelously made? You are!
Over the past 35 years, I have met many good and some great people, led even more amazing people in business endeavors, worked for some brilliant strategic minded people and have experienced personal highs and lows that have launched me upward and forward and pulled me downward and drowning. The reality is that I desperately sought the accolades of equally broken people and believed the lies of failure and critique. I lionized the broken, called “successful” by a broken World who deflected their own personal struggles and human frailties by moving the mirror of their life 45-degrees to no longer reflect on them, but rather to direct their line of sight toward someone in their sphere of relational influence. When we ignore the mirror that reflects who we are, we miss the gift of life experience and surrender to the lies of regret and oftentimes accompanying guilt and shame.
A marvelous thing about getting older is experience. The laundry list of negatives to getting older could make up a book in and of itself. Let’s leave it at this: Getting old isn’t for wimps. For purposes of this book, we’ll focus on the beautiful gift of experience that age allows and sadly, society discounts. Let’s change that. Let’s boldly proclaim that we will draw on life experiences and provide access to these experiences for those chosen to come in our path, needing the life lessons that we have to provide. Whether 14, 40 or 84, your experiences hold hope for someone. Experience is a gift that replaces the limiting ball-and-chain of regret if we choose to release it to the World. Someone who will cross your path today, this day, needs to hear the affirming words of encouragement that your life experience provides them. Legitimate words born out of lessons learned, not opinions offered.
We live in a time that truth is increasingly denied and we write off difficult realities with statements like “I know this is cliché,” all the while knowing deep down knowing that the very things we are working to discount are truths. There is difference in denying and rejecting. I have witnessed those leaving this life who are faced with the reality of lives that have pursued frivolous things commonly say, “if I had it to do over, I would spend more time with my family, my husband/wife, my kids, my loved ones, my friends, etc.” There is continual feedback from an increasingly broken mental health establishment that says the most important thing we can give our kids is time. We see marriage as an institution increasingly under attack and being devalued with the reasoning oftentimes being, “we just grew apart” and “we did not prioritize making time for one another” as explanation for the failure. “We know these truths to be self-evident” were remarkable words spoken by a brilliant Martin Luther King, Jr. over 50 years ago and today I believe he would say, ‘and we still don’t get it.’ We write off foundational life truths and the question is, what if we chose to accept as truth the value of time and time invested in those around us and those entrusted to us? Would it change the trajectory of our life and the things that own priority in our life? Let’s reject cliché and accept consideration of what if I did this? How would the repositioning of my life’s priorities remove the anchors of a life trained, focused and dependent on wrong things. What if you chose to set yourself free from the indoctrination of the past and the understanding and expectation of a future based upon the truths of life experience?
I am experienced in a World full of “influencers.” The question that I want to challenge you with is not who is influencing you, but why are you allowing them to influence you? What if they are seeking truth, hope, purpose, the same as you? Why are you awarding this person the privilege and honor to influence your life? Ask yourself why? Why am I allowing another beautifully damaged human that I really know nothing about to influence my life? (and we are all damaged in some way.) If we can get to the “why” of this question the transformation of our mind, our life approach, our very identity begins to take shape. What if your life experiences were the pathway to understanding for someone in your present and your future. What if you influenced based upon real World experience and clear honesty versus the opaque visuals that mesmerize so many today. What if you choose to walk with eyes wide open, heart wide open, experience wide open, desire to love wide open. What if the life you are living is on purpose, for purpose. What if the lows were and are the cornerstone of a foundation to support the highs. What if, the highs make the lows understandable, with real meaning and character confirming? What if your character trumps your career, your 401K, your want list? What if need really does outweigh want? What if you look outward? What if this is the first day of the remainder of the life you were created for and the gift your experience represents to others?
God has placed on my heart this book of hope and introspection. My prayer for you is that this will stimulate thought and affirmation of who you are and possibly consideration of where and how you will go from here. I implore you to accept that nothing that has happened in your life up to this point is a waste, unless you choose not to use it for the purposes that God has created you to provide. Your contribution to this World matters and your life experiences are the education that has prepared you for this moment. There are so many people coming in your path that need to hear the lessons and the hope learned from your life. Don’t discount what is priceless. Experience. Don’t waste what is learned because it delivers understanding to so many seeking affirmation. You have been created by the Creator of all things and your value to Him is beyond measurement by this World’s broken standards.
“For I know the plans I have for you,” says the Lord.
“They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.”
Jeremiah 29:11
Side note here. When God directed Jeremiah to deliver these powerful words of hope to the Israelites as they were living in exile and slavery in Babylon, the promise was 70 years in the future. God works in timelines very different than ours but perfect in their timing. Guard against the lie of instant gratification. The bitterness of instant cannot stand against the sweetness of life ripening.
Let’s dive in and consider the social mores of today and the eternal truths of a life based upon a trust in the foundational cornerstone of Christ and the purpose guided hope delivered that a Savior-led life will create in each of us. He’s ready for you to take your first step into the life that you were specifically created for. Your DNA is solely yours and your life’s purpose is wholly yours. Please join me.