now

The summer I turned forty shook me up a bit. It may be due to idea that I always assumed I was invincible. My death and the end of my life was rarely a thought that took up much space in my mind. To me, at the time, life was long, and to think about my life having an end was inconceivable. Being forty brought this inevitable reality closer to home.

I guess you could say that I’m about halfway done with it, if graciously God allows me to live the average lifespan for a guy. It must be what all the old people used to talk about when they mentioned a mid-life crisis. From what I know of a mid-life crisis, it’s probably the only time I can quit my job, buy a convertible or motorcycle, get a tattoo and get away with it. They’ll say, “Oh, he’s just going through the mid-life crisis, we just have to let him get through it.”

As a result of this new awareness, all the things I previously thought about life and death needed to be rethought.

Why do I think the way I do? Why do I believe what I believe? The things I hold to being true, am I absolutely sure and convinced that they are? Is the way I am living my life matter or is it making a difference?

I have always had this fear that I end up being the guy in the evening of his life sitting on the front porch in a rocking chair, wondering where all the time went and wondering how it went by so fast…realizing that he had wasted his whole life chasing selfish dreams and pursuits and never really did anything that I was actually supposed to have done. Or that I either didn’t become aware of my unique gifts or if I did, I was too fearful to use them. As a result I went and buried them under a rock rather than giving them away and allowing God to use them in the lives of others.

Are you aware of that one unique gift God has given you?  The one He wired you to use to point people to Jesus or use to love others in the name of the Christ?

Are you using them NOW? You’re life is meant to be lived now… your life doesn’t start when you feel competent or adequate enough, graduate from college, get that job, get married, have enough time or money, or…. you get the point. You’re life is going on right now. Go live it. 

If you are aware of your unique giftedness, are you using it? How? Or Why not?

If you recognize unique gifts in others, do you tell them so that they might have the courage to use it? Try it and see what happens?