The Second Half

Years ago I read a book about planning for the second half of your life. A lot of people tend to work towards moving their life toward idle during this time but the book challenges the status quo. Statistics show that most people by age 30 have stopped growing in all areas of life except their waistline. I am hoping to to go against the status quo as well. When you get to the back half of your life time becomes more valuable and you lose the idea that your present life is an eternity. You want to make the days, weeks, years count and not just count the days, weeks and years.

Over the last few months I have been doing a lot of study of myself. I have invited a variety of people to evaluate how I do life and to give me honest feedback of what they see. Why would I do this? I want to continue the transformation process God began in me years ago when I decided to follow him as Savior and Lord (Phil. 1:6). Matter of fact I invite God to reveal whatever in my life needs to change. Psalm 139:23-24 provides a great prayer for this, "Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thougths. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting."

Self evaluation is not easy but it is rewarding. If we fail to do this we miss out on a big part of the this great adventure called life. Don't limit yourself, leap forward in who you can become. Don't doubt yourself, but double the view of yourself. Don't coast into the second half of your life but carve into it with welcomed change. May our second half of life trump the first in living large and not just around the waistline!

Blog Pressure

It's seems as adults and especially as parents we talk a lot about peer pressure from the past and more so in the present with our kids. We all have a story of how peer pressure made use do something we didn't think we should do and after getting caught knew we shouldn't have done. Like smoking under the school steps in third grade.

Peer pressure can easily be seen in the negative but there is a positive side to most things. I have been influenced by positive peer pressure in a lot of ways that has helped transform my life. Back in 1979 I experienced peer pressure to attend a Bible Study for athletes. How uncool was that in '79, yet I went and my life was changed for eternity. Because of the positive peer pressure I am better off, my wife is better off, my children and those I come in contact with. If you knew me prior to '79 you would agree.

Well, due to positive peer pressure I have picked up writing in my blog. Because I am a boomer baby and just missed the '64 and beyond cut off for the tech generation, tech and blogging don't naturally flow in my blood stream. I often think as well, "What do I have to say that will compel a person to take time to click on my face on the New Hope web-site and read my thoughts?" There are many reasons I could come up with to push back the peer pressure yet I am seeing clearer these days why it is important for me to blog.

I want people to know my heart, what makes me tick, my victories and defeats, and see Jesus in my words that they may not see in my life from a distance. Who knows where the blog will go from here, but I do know that life is a "great adventure" and if anybody has something to say, "profound or not" it is me. Just as my kids. So kudos to positive peer pressure and those who influence my life for good.