Are you happy with yourself?

Are you happy with yourself?

• Do you wish that you were older or younger? 
• Would you rather have been born in a different era? 
• Do you wish you were born of a different sex? 
• Do you wish that you had different parents? 
• Do you wish that you had a different body?

As I pass the remarkable age (for me) of four and a quarter score, I wonder how I made it this far. In 1955 as a student at Georgia Tech, country singer Faron Young's hit song became a favorite of mine. 

"I want to live fast, love hard, die young,
and leave a beautiful memory.” 

That song became my battle cry! Thank God, the third item of my plan failed.

That leads me to an important personal insight. I have always been most happy to be the age that I was at the time. 

• I guess in college, I was having so much fun - almost flunked out – that I was not looking forward to growing older. 
• It was fun in my late twenties to be the Young Turk fighting to change the status quo in an institutionalized company that was dying. 
• In a mid-life crisis, I was happy with a less stressful job and a supportive family. 
• I am still happy at my present age even though my body is wearing out and I can’t do the things that earlier I thought I could not live without. Now there are exciting new things to do. 

Don't believe that you are too young or too old to do what you are called to do.

Just because I can no longer play golf it isn't the end of life.

Am I happy with myself?

No! I fall short of God’s target so often. A quick review of my past reveals any number of regrets, some as a direct result of the plan for my life - sung by Faron Young.

• I wish that I had learned how to love at an earlier age. 
• I wish that I had spent more time with my wife and children rather than chasing fame and fortune. 
• I wish that I had learned to sing. 
• I wish that I was better playing the guitar. 

But all in all, I am pretty content.

Getting back to the questions that started this issue, I am content with my age today with all of its pains and medical issues. 

My lifetime has seen tremendous progress:

• from crystal sets to flat-screen TV’s - 
  
• from Ford Tri-motors to supersonic intercontinental transports 
• from 4th of July Roman Candles to ICBM's, landing men on the moon, and exploring the moons of Uranus 
• from mechanical adding machines to microcomputers and the internet - 
• advancements in medicine and medical devices which helped me live this long. 

Not only did I watch this progress but was actually able to participate in some.

What an era to be alive!

My parents were far from perfect, but I could not imagine having any others, they made me who I am today. 

While my body was never perfect, it has taken me where I needed to go, not as a professional athlete, but good enough to not embarrass myself on the golf course or bowling alley - that is until I got too old. I would never have made it as an underwear model, but my body has been good enough for what God has called me to be.

Are you happy with yourself?

Do you realize, that God created you the way you are?

• He wanted you born in the era in which you were born. 
• He created you as a male or female based on His plan for your life. 
• He gave you the parents that you had. 
• He gave you that body.

If you are unhappy with your present age, the era in which you were born, your sex, your parents, or your body, then your problem is with God. He created you for a purpose by putting you in this world in this place, with those parents, and gave you the body for a reason:

To fulfill His purpose in your life.

Do not rebel against  God’s plan for your life!

Dare to Explore

To explore is "To travel in or through an unfamiliar country or area in order to learn about or familiarize oneself with it."

When I was a child one of my dreams was to become an explorer. My son inherited this dream - wanting to be like Indiana Jones. 
While we did not make it, we did live vicariously  through TV and movies with Captain James T. Kirk of Star Trek with its five year mission, "to boldly go where no man has gone before." We saw all of the "Indiana Jones" movie franchise. 

In 1993, a real life explorer and adventurer came into my office and sat down across my desk. Colonel Norman Vaughn had been the dog team leader of Admiral Byrd's expedition to Antarctica in 1928-1930. In 1930, admiral Byrd named Mt Vaughn after his musher. For sixty five years Vaughn wanted to go back. He told me of his plans to climb his namesake 10,302 ft mountain (MT Vaughn) - a feat he completed completed in 1994 at the ripe old age of 88. The National Geographic Society film Height of Courage documented his training and the first attempt at the summit. It would take three separate attempts before he reached the peak. In a 1998 interview Vaughn told NPR's Peter Breslow, "I have failed a lot of times, but when I fail, I try to come back and get a better way of doing the same thing. His desire to go back to the peak on his 100th birthday failed for lack of funding.

In this day and age with all of our electronic devices and social media, it is too easy to sit in our recliner and explore the world through technology. Unfortunately, we will miss out on the real exploration excitement, discovering for ourselves new worlds and new areas of life. We can watch an great football game, but that is nothing like being down on the field actually playing in the game. We can watch a traveler in foreign lands but that is nowhere as fine as being there, smelling the flowers, tasting the food, or meeting the people.

It is time to get out of our comfort zone and head to the end zone.

• God called Abraham to leave his comfortable home in the city of Ur, to travel to a place he had never been. Abraham went willingly.
• He called Moses - who had settled down in the backside of the desert - to leave his comfort zone to lead God's people to the promised land. Moses was a little reluctant, but went in obedience.
• God called Jonah to go to Nineveh to preach to the enemies of the Jews. Instead he ran the other way. 

Jesus called a group of fishermen, tax collectors, and ordinary men to become extraordinary explorers traveling through unfamiliar countries to transform the world. 

God is calling ordinary people just like you into a new adventure.  

Matthew 4:18-20 (NKJV) And Jesus, walking by the Sea of Galilee, saw two brothers, Simon called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea; for they were fishermen. Then He said to them, "Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men." They immediately left their nets and followed Him.

Jesus is calling you:

• But I am only ordinary.  He uses ordinary people. - Jesus first wants a relationship.- "FOLLOW ME"
• But, I do not know what to do. It is not about doing, it is about becoming. Jesus said that He would change you."I WILL MAKE YOU...." We will not JUST learn how to love our neighbor,  We will become lovers of all people. Rather than doing good things, we will become good people.

Will you become an explorer or an armchair quarterback? 

How will you respond? 

• Like Abraham and leave on the great adventure?
• Like Moses, reluctantly but willingly?
• Like Jonah, run the other way?
• or like Peter and Andrew - enter into a close relationship with God and follow Him wherever He leads?

Please feel free to comment.

Bill Johnson