If I live to 95, the year will be 2064. That’s 43 years from now, after which my name will be written with an end date. Marc David Casciani (1969 – 2064).
We all have an end date. What will you do between now and then? Now is today. Then is unknown. But whenever “then” is, do you think it’s a bad idea to get started now?
Say this with me, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.” Allow that thought to enter your mind and take seed. Secure it by passing it along to your heart so it can be loved. Nurture it so your remaining years on earth will be lived with a calm, joyful, purposeful confidence rooted in God’s love for you and your love for others.
There are three facts to embrace:
- There is a God, a supreme being that created us.
- You’re not in control of your life. God is. You may think you are, but you’re not.
- Our ability to live the life He wants us to live is a fuction of how we manage our minds. If we’re good stewards, then we can live up to the life which God called.
I’m not speaking to you as a pastor or preacher but as a layperson. These truths I speak are experiential. I am a player-coach, and I teach what I’ve learned.
The single most important variable in a positive outlook and output in life is renewing your mind. We must unlearn what we have learned. I’m talking about understanding the patterns that were established in your mind and passed to your heart usually started in ways you weren’t even aware of at the time. Renewing your mind entails establishing new patterns that awaken your understanding of how you’re wired, how you’re created. It’s hard to do this on your own. You may need a mind coach as a helper.
Kindly permit me to share a story that highlights how a change of mindset, changes the outlook.
A farmer got tired of his farm, and you would say, of course, because he was born there. He had spent all his days in that place. When he was a child, he rode cows in the meadows, picked apples, swam in small streams, and walked through the meadows through the forest to the school by the roadside.
As he grew older, he had plowed every acre of land in the spring, helping to lay hay in the summer, pulverizing in the fall, and transporting fodder for the animals in the winter. He took his bride to his old house there. His three children were born under the same roof where he was born. Now the children have grown up and had their own homes.
The farmer was sick and bored with his surroundings. He wanted to change, and often in his dreams, he imagined a quiet place where conditions were ideal, where he would spend his old age in comfort and happiness. He told the house agent in the town what he felt, so the agent went and took a closer look at his farm. He felt confident that he would be able to find a buyer easily.
When the weekly newspaper came on Thursday, the old farmer saw the advertisement in the newspaper and found his farm on the list. The ad said that a 160-acre site in Hammond was up for sale. The land is fertile and productive, and it never fails to produce a crop. Forty acres of land are filled with the finest timber; a well provides water all year round. There is a meadow in the middle of a small river, and there is a house consisting of eight rooms. The warehouse is large and modern. There are machines and a rice barn with a large area.
The place has horses, cows, sheep, and chickens. It is close to town and has a telephone. There were various kinds of fruit trees, both large and small, with a coolness surrounding the house.
The old man read the ad a second time, then went into town to meet the estate agent. “I’ve read the advert,” he said, “and as far as I know, that’s where I’ve wanted to be all along. I don’t think I’m going to sell my farm.”
– Charles L. Paddock
Renewing your mind involves clearing and calming your mind so that you can pay attention to what God has provided you. It is analogous to fog lifting and being able to clearly see the road ahead.
The world in which we live has a way of conditioning us to never be happy. We seem to want more and more and more. We envy. We covet. We chase dreams cultivated by what media plants in our minds. Those thoughts are like weeds that choke out plants that produce fruits and vegetables. They generate complaints and grumbling that only make us unable to see and hear God’s blessings.
No matter how many years you have left until your “then,” start living the life God called you to live by committing to renew your mind now.
MindWolves 