This Is Your Life, or is it

You wake up. Hit the snooze. Roll around a bit. Shuffle down the hall for a cup of coffee or lemon water. Then thoughts of your day start flooding your mind. Are they good thoughts? Are they overwhelming thoughts? Good? Bad? This is your life, or is it?

Are You Who You Want To Be

Whether you want to admit it or not, you are who you are. Pretty profound huh? That’s me. I can get pretty deep. Sometimes an inch or more, haha!

You Have Been Molded and Shaped

Yes, you have been programmed. Your environment has shaped you. Most people never change from what their environment projected onto (into) them, good or bad.

I’ve used this analogy more than once from my mentor, but your brain is like a piece of granite. Influencers in your early life took a chisel and over and over again, from that first etch, they drew that chisel over that same groove. Over the years, that groove became significant. It’s almost impossible to erase a scratch, let alone a groove, from a piece of granite.

And you also have strengths that you have been born with (personality, gifts, talents). Most people have never honed those strengths. Thus those strengths, unbridled, become a drain on others.

Who Are You

This is your life, or is it? Are you who you want to be? Do you ever wonder how you ended up where you are in life? Well, don’t DWELL on it because that is when you get STUCK! For me, I think about when I reached the age of 29. If I had known all I know now, what could I have accomplished during those early years?

Well, guess what! I am 60 now. Definitely not the smartest one in any room I walk into. But I have become wise in my old age. Wisdom = Experience + Knowledge. And do you know what else? I have determined that I still have a minimum of 29 solid years left in me. Yes, the ripe old age of 89 plus! What I am saying? It’s never too late to become who you want to be.

Becoming Who You Are

Realize two things:

• You have not arrived
• You are not stuck

If you have arrived, then you are stuck! But that’s not my focus for this post.

Believe you are not stuck. I don’t care if you are old like me. Make your life an adventure. There is no growth in comfort. So step out. Yes, it can be scary. Don’t wake up playing Ground Hog Day every morning, day after day. That’s being stuck.

Getting On Track

I worked at a good job for 11 years. But I stayed 10 years too long. Can and did God use those 10 years? Absolutely. Is it who and what I wanted to be? Absolutely not. Those were some jaded years for me. But God used my wife, my mentor, and others to get me on track for who I needed and wanted to be.

It’s About Your Everyday Walk With Jesus

First, realize who you are in Christ:

2 Corinthians 5:17 ESV

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.

You are a new creation. You are not the old (the past) you any longer. God will take those experiences and use them for good. But please note – God did not make bad things happen.

Faith = Action

You can’t separate your everyday walk with Jesus from what you do. So a first great step in becoming who you want to be, who you are meant to be, is this:

Romans 12:2a NIV

Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.

How do you transform your life? By being in the Living and the Written Word of God. Now this, to me, sounds too Christianese. So let me translate. The Living Word of God is Jesus. The written Word of God is Jesus. The Word…became flesh, which is Jesus. This all translates into this:

Challenge of the Week

Wake up. Get that cup of coffee or whatever it is that you start your day with. But the moment you open your eyes, be in the Word. What I mean is, know that every step you take, every waking moment, you are walking with Jesus, becoming who you were meant to be each and every day of the week, because He is with you and you are in Him. So be it!