As I’m sure you can guess, in some ways I never actually grew up.
One example of this is the fact that I still enjoy reading the Sunday comics. One of the comics I like the best is called “Pickles.” It’s a comic about an elderly couple, Earl and Opal, and the humor that occurs in their lives. For some reason I’ve always liked Earl. The top of his head pokes out from under his white hair, he’s got glasses, and he walks with a slight hunch. I’ve joked before that I’m a grumpy old man in training, but Earl’s an old man without the grump (most of the time).
I read one Pickles comic not long ago. Earl sits up in bed as he faces a new day, then gets up and shuffles to the bathroom. As he looks at himself in the mirror he begins to ponder his life. “Look at yourself Earl, you’re an old codger!” With still-mussed hair, he asks “When and how did this happen?”
He keeps reflecting on his life as he begins brushing his teeth. “One day you’re a young buck with the world at your feet…” In the final panel, “…and the next day you’re an old dude brushing your teeth with Preparation H.”
I’ve always enjoyed hearing from Earl, but in the back of my mind, I’m afraid the distance between where I am and where he is probably isn’t as large as I’d like to think. There are certain seasons of life that seem to drag, but overall the time flies.
Personally, I’ve never been slapped with the jarring wake-up call from a doctor that includes the words “it’s time to get your affairs in order.” If that day ever comes, I’m sure I’ll have regrets over the time I’ve wasted doing various things.
To shift gears for a moment, back when I was first starting this blog, there was a pretty sizable chunk of time where I had no ideas about what I’d call it. As far as I was concerned, the whole point of the blog was to bolster readers’ faith, encourage them to dig deeper in their relationship with Christ, and exhort them, even try to push them, to increase the amount of time and effort they give to the Lord. Heaven will have people that barely made it through the “pearly gates,” and of course we’ll be happy they’re there. There will also be those in Heaven with many jewels in their crown. I’m not focused on greed here, but I think Christians should aspire to receive ornate crowns. (We’ll be giving those crowns to the Lord anyway, so the only “tangible” benefit of having a highly decorated crown is to have more to offer back to God.) I want my writing to help people receive crowns that have more jewels than they otherwise would have. I’m not looking to foster a sense of greed; I want to encourage readers to live their lives in such a way that additional jewels are a natural byproduct of their lifestyle.
The way people will do that is by being willing to risk something in their pursuit of Christ and the life He wants them to live. Maybe it’s risking comfort, or being willing to stand up for Christ’s teachings when everyone else seems to be sitting down. In some way, it involves graduating from the role of a spectator or someone who watches from safety, and taking on the role of someone who “gets out of the boat” the way Peter did.
During this time of searching for a title, I attended a conference where I heard a quote from Teddy Roosevelt that embodied a lot of what had been swirling in my mind:
“It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself in a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat.”
The quote instantly found a special place in my heart. Knowing Christ is a fantastic thing, and if you know Him, I’m very glad to hear it. Let’s not let the story end there, though. While most Christians live relatively quiet lives, there are some that are involved in making history; they affect God’s kingdom on a larger scale than they would have ever anticipated. It’s not because they themselves are great…it’s because they said “yes” when God offered them an invitation, and He did something great through them. Success (at least as we imagine it) is never assured, but each invitation has a purpose. As the world keeps getting darker, we’re going to need more history-makers. In order to get more history-makers, we need to help “everyday” Christians say “yes” to God instead of saying “no.”
After hearing the quote, I had a large piece in “dare greatly.” Sadly, the domain “daregreatly.com” was already taken. If you go to that address, you get rerouted to a luxury vehicle website (maybe not what most people think of when imagining someone who “dares greatly”).
That led me to the final piece of the puzzle. In a tip of the cap to the urgency with which the world needs Christianity’s salt and light, I settled on daregreatlynow.com. It helps convey the idea that the world needs Christian influence, it needs it from you, and it needs it now.
If we haven’t already reached the point where we’re looking in the mirror and wondering where the time went, we probably will someday (sooner than we think). In order to be able to meet your own steady gaze when that day comes, I invite you to consider accepting whatever challenge Christ has been laying in your path recently. Your version of victory is not guaranteed, and there’s likely some cost or sacrifice involved. God could have given the assignment to someone else, but He didn’t. He gave it to you.
So I ask, will you be content with bemoaning your age in the mirror, or once you reach that point, would you rather be content with a life well lived? I urge you to live a life where you follow God into the unknown. You can’t see the path, but He can. Dare greatly, and dare greatly now, for the sake of the Lord’s kingdom and those that have yet to join it.
Father I thank you for the precious and fleeting gift of time. Once it’s gone, it’s never coming back. We’ll have all the time we want in Heaven, but there are some things that have an eternal impact here in this life. Help us to embrace Your calling for our lives, to have confidence in Your ability to enable us to do it, and to avoid reaching the end of this life while still holding onto untapped potential. This I ask in Your name, Amen.