Because Life is Short

I'm fifty-four years old. It still comes as kind of a surprise to me when I write that, but it's true. Now, fifty-four isn't old, exactly, but it's not young either. I still feel young, sometimes, but then I spend time with people who actually are young and realize that things that seem like they happened not that long ago took place before they were born. When that happens, you know you're not young.

When I write that I'm fifty-four, it makes me realize that I have, in all likelihood, already lived more than half my life. In fact, I may have lived substantially more than half my life already. I realize that life is short, and there are only so many years that I have left. Not that I expect it to all come to an end today or tomorrow, although it always could. There is a point, though, at which it will come to an end.

It strikes me that there are two ways to look at that. Well, there are probably a lot more than two ways to look at it, but there are two that I want to discuss here.

One of them is to say that, since life is short, we need to be as active as we can. We need to do as much as we can, because there will come a day when we can't do it any more. We need to get up early and work as hard as we can for as long as we can, so that when the day comes when we cannot do those things, we can feel like we absolutely did as much as we could.

The other way is to say that, since life is short, we need to take some time to have fun. We need to take time for ourselves. If we become too active, if we try to do too much, we'll burn ourselves out. We'll lose the joy and the fun of being alive. We need to, as the saying goes, stop and smell the roses, or we miss out on the joy of just living.

Earlier in my life, I tended toward the latter view. Now, I tend toward the former. This is a direct consequence of how much I enjoy my work now. Don't get me wrong—I enjoyed being a lawyer. But I love being a pastor. And I especially love being a pastor here in these beautiful communities with such wonderful people. I'm as active as I am because I enjoy what I do.

Besides, if I did take more time off, I'm not sure what I'd do with it. I could read more, I suppose. I could watch more ball games. Maybe I could travel. But you know, there's only so much reading you can do. There are only so many ball games you can watch. And the fact is, I don't like traveling all that much. I could spend more time with Wanda, and there are times when that would be a good thing to do, but Wanda is at least as active as I am, and enjoys it just as much as I do.

I am learning that I have to pace myself, though. I need to make sure I get enough rest, because if I don't, I'll eventually wear myself down and get sick. I need to take the time to get some exercise and to eat properly, too, because again, there will be consequences to my health if I don't. As I get older, I will probably need to be even more careful about these things.

I'm not saying my way is the way it should be for everybody. We're all different. As I said, I did not always feel the way I do now. Maybe at some point in the future I'll feel differently again. For now, though, I'm going to stay as active as I can. Because life is short, I love what I do, and there's really nothing else I want to do with my life.