Fun in the Son…Freedom with Christ
So, if the Son sets you free, you shall be free indeed. (John 8:36, NIV)
July 29th, 2022
RELISH: the REARVIEW MIRROR
What is your opinion? Are you all grown up, fully matured, nothing left to learn, now only to experience life is what remains? Or are you still a work in progress and have a way—if not a long ways yet—to go? For me, I hope I never grow weary of learning, of hoping to achieve everything the Lord has for me. I think the day I awaken and feel like that’s all there is, then I should hang up my hat and my heart and go home.
I know some people, however, who view this differently than I do. They have arrived. I think I will always still be getting there. Like an extravaganza, a grand party, that has been on the calendar for a very long time, I’m still trying to decide what to wear and who I should bring with me, continuously thinking and dreaming ahead for when the big day finally comes! I cherish the invitation I clench tightly in my fist, exuberant at what festivities are to come. There are those whom I know who reached retirement age, who have successfully lived life and are comfortable with their status quo and their financial comfortability, and even are pleased with all they have learned and are quite content they need nothing else in their lives, including wisdom and understanding and relationship. I’m still figuring out what I want to be when I grow up, and they are kicked back in the armchair of life, a beverage held loosely in one hand and their possessions in the other while their learnings and experiences lap gently at their feet like waters on a shore. My mom has always said that’s because I’m an ‘artist’…artists aren’t usually ‘happy’ and ‘content’ and ‘satisfied’, she says.
There is something about the rearview mirror of life. Thank God it’s no longer the size of a windshield, right?! We spend much of our lives peering through a wide-open space, sun and life, choices and mistakes, glaringly staring us down, no way to get away from its hugeness because it is so big, so consuming, larger than life, the big picture. And one day, we awaken, and we realize we no longer are gauging things by the size of what we see through the windshield, but now rather, it’s the detailed preciseness of what we can still glimpse in the rearview mirror. Sometimes, I wish I would have started with the rearview mirror first. It’s so defined and minute and dear, and its what we recall, what we relish, that remains in the rearview mirror of our lives.
I learned this from my precious daddy—probably the best example I have ever been given—was watching him begin to benchmark what fit in his rearview mirror. When he began to talk about those things he was seeing in his rearview mirror, I sat up and paid attention. He said things that mattered, things like, ‘I stopped and prayed for you this morning. I prayed that…’ ‘It’s not the size of your bank account that matters. What matters is the size of your mission.’ ‘Life comes down to one moment…the last. What you did with all the other moments will lead up to the very last moment; what you did with them will determine your last moment. So, make it matter. For eternity.’ ‘Don’t carry a large ruler. Carry instead a big eraser. People won’t admire you for what you did or didn’t measure up to, but for what you forgave.’ ‘When you no longer have one thing left to learn is when you have taken your last breath. Listen and be willing to learn until that final exhale.’ ‘What you take with you is nothing. What you leave behind is everything. Leave something beautiful that matters so others can remember you by.’ ‘You are not defined by your mistakes. You are defined by what you allowed the mistakes to make of you in the process.’ ‘Respect the rearview mirror. It is the most honest mirror you will ever look into.’
At the end of the day, what really matters? What matters most? Where brings you freedom? Perhaps it is status and being the name on everyone’s tongue? Is it all the places you will go? Is it the size of your home or the value of your art collection, your closet of clothing or vault of jewelry? Maybe it is the wealth you are accumulating in your investment portfolio? While it likely will provide a comfortable demise for you and comfort for your family, don’t let building it steal the moments that make memories and preserve a legacy to leave for your loved ones. Remember, a legacy is far beyond financial security and material wealth; it is a collection of memories created together, a tapestry woven with strands of love, reflections and family, a priceless heirloom held in your heart that never tarnishes and can be taken with everyone no matter where they journey.
Psalm 16:6, ‘The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places.’ (NIV)
Out of all the living things God made, He created mankind to BE. Whatever, whoever, you are, Beautiful You, BE the best version of you; BE the change this world needs; BE filled; BE free!
