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It Ain't about Getting There As Much As It Is About How You Look When You Show Up
The road in fact gets narrower the older we get.
Do you have a plan?
How we live this life is what is important. Living for today is all well and good to phrase our intentions but let us face it we also live for the eternity of our lives. This is not a religious article but it just might as well be. Sure we all think about the afterlife a bit but isn't that only about half as important as what we do on the way there. And isn't that the beauty of it. The more we think about today and do well by it, the better off we are for the end of our days. Dealing with the here and now is paramount to considerations of the rest of our existence.
Personally I like it like that. It takes the pressure off the long run and puts it right in the day to day, one day at a time that I can handle. Let me put some meat on the bones of this concept and steal from a song, that you can listen to down below. "I ain't afraid of dying but what scares me to death is meeting Jesus with whiskey on my breath" You see theists of the biblical variety love to debate just who and who does not get in to heaven. Some folk do not worry about that that much. But they do worry about how they will look when they get there. Perhaps that is the right way to go about thinking about it.
Sometimes a little country song is good for the soul. I am not admitting to nothing but I am just saying....
There is just so much beauty in the world.
How about you?
When you show up are you going to be looking good?
Truly I jest about looking good - or do I?
I like the current billboards/marquees for churches. "Come As You Are" they proclaim and the double meaning should not be missed by anyone. But I must admit I always get gussied up to go to any kind of worship service. I suppose I will always feel not quite good enough as I am for my creator. And what a shame that is for me. Certainly I should have higher self esteem than that. But why don't I?
These kind of things are easy to lay at the foot of how we were raised. Personally I think that has some validity as far as cause goes but not as far as dealing with it goes. Somehow I have to get the personal affirmations down well enough to realize that I am good enough.And that is not enough.
I really do have to do something about how I live and I have to do it on a day to day basis. Do I make other's lives more abundant in the good things? Do I help those who need help? Do I take good enough care of myself so that I am always ready to be of service to others? Do I make a conscious effort to right wrongs that I know about? Do I contribute as a citizen?
These things are the essence of how I will look come the day of my reckoning. New clothes or minty fresh breath or fancy things are not the look I am going for. This life is not something you can get all cleaned up for at the end and have a good result. It requires at least one lifetime of effort.
This video is helpful
Many folks worry about things like meditation and Yoga being at the very least a distraction from their biblical understanding. I understand the angst. I am someone who practices meditation taught by Eastern type new age folks. I am novice but try to practice Yoga. But this "song" is one which I meditate and do Yoga with. The performers do many chants and fully Eastern meditation music. But they also do this kind and I would hope that it helps some realize that with very little effort we can dispose of the angst and take some of the best and leave the rest.
East meets West
This photo always makes me remember with fondness Psalm 23
And the really really great news!
It is never ever too late. Every day has it's own beginning middle and end. So even in the middle of the day we can change course and get ourselves ready to meet our maker. It is said we are born perfect and go downhill from there. I disagree. We all have faults but isn't over coming them and making progress the real measure of striving for a more perfect us. How can we be made perfect without the forge of fire to help mold us into a better person.
So I would say that if we strive then indeed it may be our very last act that we present with. Isn't that a nice thought. If every second may be our last then why not make every second count. And perhaps that is how we shall be counted.
I would like to think that today I did good. I touched others and did it in an upbeat happy way. That as I lay me down to sleep tonight I made one life better before doing so. For me it is easy. I have family so I do not have to go out looking for someone's life to touch, I can do it right here from home. But anyone can find someone to lift up.
So when that day comes and I get weighed in and sized up. I won't be afraid. I hope you will join me.
I hope you do not look like a thief when you show up.
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