Half-Time or Game Over?

Philippians 1:6 “…being confident of this, that he who began a good work will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.”

Researchers tell us that most people maintain a learning attitude up until the age of forty, and from that point on they simply stop learning, content with settling to live the rest of their lives with the limited knowledge of those first four decades. How tragic! You can choose straightaway not to be like that!

Instead of having an attitude which essentially says ‘Game over!’, we can embrace a reflective period more akin to half-time. No matter what stage of life we’re at, there is so much more to learn, to grow into, and therefore to leverage in due course for God’s glory. God has begun a good work in us, which we want to see come to completion, We don’t want to mentally check out and sleep walk our way into retirement. No, we can choose to make the rest of our years the best of our years.

As Søren Kierkegaard wrote: “The thing is to understand myself, to see what God really wishes me to do… to find the idea for which I can live and die.” Augustine said that the beginning of adulthood was asking the question of your own legacy: what do I wish to be remembered for? Of course we don’t know when we’ll die, but we can shape our epitaph in how we choose to live life now. That means moving beyond narrow definitions of what constitutes success in life to broader definitions of what is truly significant and impacting for those around us.

So today, do take time to reflect on your journey – how far you’ve come, whether you’re on the right track, where you want to be headed, what goals have been accomplished or remain unaccomplished, and what you want your epitaph to be.

Lord, help me to finish strong in your name, Amen!