Do you ever wonder if you’re wasting your life? Are you maxing out your potential? Are you on the right path? Are you clear on your goals? Do you feel like they are the “right” goals for you?
I have many great examples in my life of people who max out their potential. I’ve been blessed to have such examples for as long as I can remember. My Dad and his brothers are definitely some of these and most prominent examples. Raised by parents who survived the Great Depression, they were taught to work like their lives depended on it! Because they did! But, they continue to work like their lives depend on it well into their sixties and seventies! It is an example that brings reverent tears of pride and awe to my eyes. It is lives lived knowing true value: contributing, producing, striving, stretching, never giving up!
I’m working through this book. It is fabulous and I recommend the Study Guide, too! This morning I was struck by Mr. Piper’s inclusion of some of early American theologian and minister Jonathan Edwards’ resolutions which he penned in his early twenties in an effort to “intensify his life for the glory of God.”
Here they are as shared in Mr. Piper’s book on page 29:
#5: …never to lose one moment of time; but improve it the most profitable way I possibly can.
#6: …to live with all my might, while I do live.
#17: …that I will live so, as I shall wish I had done when I come to die.
If I apply these to my own life – I come up woefully short!!!
#5 – I waste FAR TOO MUCH TIME scrolling mindlessly through social media!! And because of this I am definitely not improving my time in “the most profitable way I possibly can.”
#6 – I am definitely not living with all my might! I’m letting myself be distracted to no end! I think to live with “all my might” I must be intentional and present!!
#17 – There’s SO MUCH MORE I want to accomplish before “I come to die.”
So – I’m going to do better at emulating the fabulous examples God has filled my life with and GET TO WORK!
The History Marm 