At the end of our lives, our greatest regrets will be those things we should have done but did not.
Did you ever wonder how some people seem to have lives that are more energized than not, ones that appear to have interesting stories to tell, stories you enjoy listening to? I have. It turns out that if we do not live fully, we have regrets. The most interesting lives tend to be lives lived with fewer regrets!
Mark Batterson's book (Multnomah Publishers, 2006), "In a pit with a lion on a snowy day," tells the story of an ancient warrior named Benaiah who chased and then jumped into a pit to kill a lion on a snowy day. Why? We don't know. Because Benaiah did so, he was later selected to be the body guard for a king. Batterson tells this story well, and asks us to imagine what the king thought when he saw Benaiah's resume: "I killed a lion in a pit on a snowy day." Benaiah later become the commander-in-chief of the entire army. The point of this story was to note that if Benaiah had decided to run instead of chase the lion, his life would have been very different.
In nine chapters, Batterson tells about other lion chasers and teaches how we can be better lion chasers and live fuller lives. It is also a story about taking risks. Importantly, it is a story about embracing uncertainty, as lion chasers are never certain what the outcome might be. The bottom line is that we have to have guts to step out in faith and chase lions. "No guts, no glory!" We need some offense in our lives, not just defense. We need to be proactive, not reactive; not just playing it safe. Lion chasers are always looking for opportunities and making the best of them -- doing the best one can with what one has.
OK. We are not going to risk chasing a lion. However, the moral of the story is that if we want to have a full life, we will need to take risks to reach for things we should reach for. It may be to quit a job for a new one in another state, to start a business, to get married, or to have children. In each instance there is risk because of the uncertainty of the results. Risk provides complications and inconveniences. However, when we embrace uncertainty that comes from risk, the end result can awaken us to a new life and unforgettable moments.
Embracing uncertainty has a lot to do with our perspectives in life. Do we believe there is a purpose for our lives? If we see no purpose, we will give up at a first set back. If we do not believe there is a purpose, then any purpose will do. If that's the case, we will believe our lives are controlled by circumstance and happenstance – random. If so, the future is dependent on chance. Well, I do not believe we are here just to wait for the wind of circumstances to move us about. I know that everyone has special talents and inclinations. Thus, I feel these inclinations, when embraced, will lead them toward their purpose -- their destiny.
Here is the challenge. Faith and the willingness to lose some control in our lives is required in order to have the confidence to embrace uncertainty. When one steps out in faith, takes a chance and becomes a lion chaser, that single experience will change the trajectory of one’s life. It certainly changed Benaiah's life from common warrior to becoming the supreme warrior!
Corrie ten Boom, a Dutch survivor of the Nazi WWII camps, demonstrated by working on a needle point picture that our lives look a lot like the underside of a needle point rendering, a jumbo of threads and colors without a discernable pattern. Yet the front side displayed a beautiful picture. Christians believe that while we see a jumble of threads, God, from the outside looking in, sees the complete picture. This means that not all our experiences (and lion chasing) may fit our perceived path (or make sense to us at the time). Lion chasers are not deterred by gaps of logic, they just move on -- in faith.
Now that I understand the ‘secret’ to a fulfilled life, I have begun chasing more lions!
© Baldwin H. Tom CMC
www.tbgroupconsultants.com
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