I Found My Life

In our Free Store conversation on Saturday morning we continued discussing the importance of taking the long view of our lives.  In his book The Seven Habits of Highly Successful People Stephen Covey refers to this as beginning with the end in mind.  If we have a clear picture of what we want our lives to look like at the end then we essentially have a roadmap for the things we will want to focus on doing from day to day.

We talked about how important it is to take effective actions that will actually produce the kind of life that we want.  Someone said that since we are created in the image of God that we have the power to create as well.  And the first and most important thing we create is our own life.  To blame others for our lives is to essentially give our creative power away and to take a passive role as a helpless victim.

One of our friends said that recently he had imagined himself coming back from the future and giving advice to himself.  He said, "I thought about it and it came to me that rather than wait for the future I needed to do something now."  So he started taking his vitamin supplements and said he was feeling better.

We talked about how success and failure are both created in the mind before they become a reality in our lives.  Somone said that if you think you are gonna lose that you probably will.  Sheila said that "you gotta have a plan."  Someone said that if you want to build a house you don't just grab the hammer and start nailing things together which made us laugh.  Instead you think about what you want and draw up a plan that can turn your desire into a reality.

A new friend said that he had been out of work and looking for a job to provide for his family.  He told us that he started meeting with a group for intercessory prayer at 5:00 am every morning even though he wasn't sure it would help.  But he got an interview at Bob Evans and got the job.  He went on to say that "if you want something in your life, you have to put forth some effort."  At this our friend Donald said that he often thought about giving up because he had to really struggle to keep going.  He told us that he often felt like nobody cared about him.  This led us to discuss how our thoughts can either lift us up or bring us down.  We talked about the importance of not letting negative circumstances press us into a negative way of thinking.

At this point our new friend Earl said that on Wednesday he got up and walked from the uptown men's shelter to Labor Ready at 3:00 am in the morning.  He kept thinking as he walked, "I wish I had a bike."  When he got to Labor Ready to report for work to the chicken factory they told him that they could not accept the copy of the social security card that he had with him but that they had to have the card itself which did not have.  With a big smile on his face Earl said that on the walk back uptown that he met a guy with a truck full of stuff and upon learning of his situation the man gave him a bike.

As our conversation moved to a conclusion our friend Mark said that he had filled out job applications for a full month and had been getting depressed.  He told us that at one point he didn't think anybody was there to help him but he was beginning to realize that help was there.  He said that he had decided to admit himself into a treatment program. At this someone said that God says, "Fear not, I've got your back."  He said that he had overcome a crack addiction and had survived liver disease.

Our friend Stephen said that he was realizing that "life is not about me" and that in accepting that reality he said, "I found my life."