Don’t you just love people who look at the part of you most visible to them, and decide from that partial view that they know you – and set out to direct your living from then on? And isn’t it telling that the majority of them tend to have made a spectacular hash of their own lives?
We all make that error, I think. To a degree, it can be excused; after all, we must operate according to what we see. Right? We’d be fools indeed to attempt to order this life by paying attention to our impressions instead of wasting our valuable time asking questions and getting facts.
Since we rarely open every bit of ourselves up to the scrutiny of imperfect, fallable others, we all wind up making judgment calls based on our best suppositions – the few facts we know folded into a batter of thoughts, opinions, ideas and “I-wonders” largely of our own making.
Does it make sense, then, that to be overly sensitive to others’ opinions, letting their likes and dislikes dictate your own happiness, is a recipe for misery in this life?
I choose to be fulfilled, not underwhelmed. To live out the rest of life Here in a steady stretch toward personal, spiritual excellence, not a daily breathless, endlessly-repetitive sprint for success.
I didn’t come this far to come this far.
Today is the beginning of all that still lies ahead of me!
I did not come this far to just come this far!
No one else sees this life or this world as I do.
Nobody else can tell my story and write my stories like I can.
When I write things from my head others smile semi-patiently. “It’s okay. He’ll come around and eventually get it right.” It’s when I write things from my soul that others dig it. It reaches down inside them, opening the door wide and twanging the doorstop. They respond from their own souls.
I know because they tell me. Oh, not many. Writing by definition is not a team sport. It involves solitude and feedback is sparse. Yet there is just enough response from readers to encourage me to not just write on, but to write better than ever before.
The best – my best – is yet to come. The finest chapters in this book I call my life have yet to be written.
And you are more than a bystander, a polite reader, a spectator. Though this is written about me, the exact same principles apply to YOU. You’re going to need to decide what to do with this now. For you, friend, are now responsible for its truth.
For me?
It is a hearty, engaging challenge from the One who has healed me and daily continues to sustain me.
Yeah. The Almighty chose to heal me based on what He knows lies within me and what He wants to do with it. God challenges me: “There ya go. Yes–nobody knows better than Me about your physical challenges. I got this. Now–I got stuff I want to do through you. Make Me proud. Show Me whatcha got.”
I accept.
© D. Dean Boone, February 2016