More Man in the Mirror

In the last post, I offered the thought up about taking a look at your life, and the challenge of carving that out in a different way than "everybody else" or the idea of realizing that you want something different and having the courage to do something about it.

In this post, I'd like to take a different angle on the "Man in the Mirror" idea. Remember the last stanza goes like this:

You may fool the whole world down the pathway of years
And get pats on the back as you pass
But your final reward will be heartache and tears
If you've cheated the man in the glass

I've posted about this before, in "Whose Life Is It Anyway", but it was on my mind so I wanted to revisit the thought. There are so many of us, who, either during a few critical times in our lives, or throughout our lives, have attempted to "fool the whole world" just to "get pats on the back as we pass". What I mean is, how we made decisions in high school (popularity) how we made decisions in or about college (conformity) the type of career we pursued, etc. Many of us made decisions during these times that were safe, or appeasing to parents or "they" (like, what will "they" think), rather than scratching that itch that we felt deep within our soul, or answering that whisper that asked us, "what about this OTHER way, what about THIS path". I hope you've had some of those moments, as I have. I think it means there is a passion there, a curiosity, something to pursue. And chances are, you have those moments from time to time now too. If you are younger, you have those moments in dealing with your friends, or choices about college, or sports, where you think to yourself, "Is this what I really want to do" and many times you do it anyway, because it is what you are SUPPOSED to do. Or you think, "I would really like to do...." But you don't, because the timing isn't right, or none of your friends are doing it, or what would your parents/friends/society think. So we (or at least me) suppress those passions, those curiosities, and we go on with life. Don't rock the boat, right? Get those proverbial "pats on the back" so we don't draw too much attention and so we can take the path of least resistance. But the path of least resistance isn't very fun or rewarding. It's very safe, for sure, but also very cookie cutter and bland. I don't believe we were designed by our Creator to be cookie cutter and bland. We were designed in His image, and I'm no Biblical scholar, but I don't believe Jesus Christ was a real boring guy who was just trying to fit in, punch the time clock, go along with society to fit in, and grind his way to a pension at retirement. 

Finally, I just finished a great book by Donald Miller called Scary Close. And pulled this quote from it. 

The quote is attributed to Bonnie Ware in his book.

"If we go to our graves with our feelings still in us, we will die with regrets"

Or, as the poem says, 

The final reward will be heartache and tears. 

There is no joy in living a life for someone else. I encourage you to spend some time discovering who YOU are and who you want to be and then get started living a life that reflects that. 

Much Love,

Bryan