At this moment, I am enjoying listening Amy Grant’s “If These Walls Could Speak.”  Now before you jump to conclusions and think that I am REALLY old (I am a young 49), listen to the song for yourself.  Think about this for a minute.

For those of us who are over 40, we have probably already lived half of our lives here on this earth.  We have a great wealth of memories.  Not all of them are pleasant ones, but they are life-shaping memories just the same.  Looking back over my life, it seems like I have already lived several lifetimes.

  • I was born in the mountains of Tennessee.  My earliest memories of this place revolved around me chasing and catching lightning bugs in a mason jar so that I could make a lantern!  I guess I really am a Tennessee hillbilly!
  • I spent my elementary years growing up in Puerto Rico.  What a beautiful island.  I think that I talk very fast today because during my language building years, I was surrounded by Spanish speaking folks…and I don’t know any Puerto Ricans who speak Spanish at a slow rate of speed!
  • My early teenage years were spent growing up in Cedar Swamp hunting, fishing, and working in tobacco fields every summer.  I still consider myself a country boy, and in the words of the late, great John Denver, “Thank God I’m a country boy!”
  • During my high school years, we moved 15 miles from the country to the big town of Kingstree, SC, population 3000!  Here is where I developed my fine social skills (I have very few) and threw myself into high school sports.  Football was king, and nothing was finer than playing football at Williamsburg Academy.  It was “Friday Night Lights” before the television show.  I can’t imagine life without sports…and I would not want to.

So my life sure has been full…and that does not even count my married, college, seminary, children, and vocational ministry years!  Allow me to make a few quick observations about what I have learned about life so far.

  • God is faithful.  Now I know that God is too vast and amazing to fully comprehend, but one attribute that I love more dearly as I get older is that He is faithful.  I am not.  I wander.  I am stubborn.  God is steady.  God is sure.  God is faithful.
  • Life is hard.  This one for some reason always seems to catch me off guard.  I think that life one day will get easier on this old earth, but it won’t.  Life on this earth is hard.  Jesus said it would be – John 16:33.
  • We can’t control many of our circumstances, but we control 100% of how we respond to them.  I love Abraham Lincoln’s quote on this, “Most people are about as happy as they make up their minds to be.”  So true.  We have 1000 reasons to be angry and upset.  Get over them.  Let’s grow up and move on.
  • Family and friends are some of life’s greatest treasures.
  • You spend as much money as you make (sometimes we even spend MORE money than we make)!
  • Life goes by so quickly and the older you get the quicker it goes!

Now, some of my not so serious life lessons…

  • Honda and Toyota make the best cars.
  • The world would be a better place if we all wore blue jeans and t-shirts.
  • Disney World IS the best vacation spot in the world…period.
  • Fishing in a one man boat on the Black River is therapy for the soul.
  • Monday Night Football, a bag of popcorn, and a Coke are a hard combination to beat.
  • A happy wife, a happy life.
  • “Hidden Fees” on ANY bill should be illegal…are you listening hotels and phone companies?
  • There is something terribly wrong with our tax system when our pay checks, property, electricity, water, phones, gas, food, and clothes all get taxed…and we STILL owe the government money!
  • Having good health is too often taken for granted.
  • Dogs are better pets than cats.  You know I am telling the truth.

Well, it is getting late and I am getting silly.  Enjoy life!