UNITED FRIENDS CHALLENGE ONE HUNDRED AND SEVEN....
TRYING TO MEET THE CHALLENGE
React/Respond to the question/topic -
What is the meaning/purpose of life?
I have thought about this quite a lot in the past ten years or so.
I have watched so many of the people closest to me work so hard.. till they had no thought or time for anything but their goal .. no matter what that goal might be.. from simply managing to bring home a paycheck each week.. to trying to build a company from the ground up to be one of the greatest in the country.
I have seen them put off going on vacations.. doing anything that was remotely relaxing or fun.. because they were saving up their money for their retirement.
They lived and worked their entire lives for the days when they could take all the gains from their sacrifice of time in the prime of their lives and relax finally and do all those things they dreamed of doing all their lives.
I grew up in a home that was always filled with love and kindness.. taking responsibility for making our own way and helping others along the way, was our main theme.
All of the years that my parents worked and saved.. never taking anything much for pleasure for themselves.. looking to the years when it was just the two of them.. to enjoy what their hard work had gained for them.. was for nothing when my mother became ill at age 46 with Lupus.
My father developed Emphysema and had to stop working at age 59. They were too sick to do anything they wanted to do then. Their lives revolved around doctors visits and medications.. oxygen bottles.. and ultimately.. everything they had saved and the home they had paid for .. is now mine.
An uncle who was two weeks away from his retirement party.. he and his wife had their fifth wheel travel trailer already packed .. ready to head out on a year long tour of the USA.
He dropped dead of a heart attack two weeks before his retirement party..
All they had waited to do .. all that they had sacrificed to be able to do in their later years.. now belongs to their daughter and son.
An aunt who was nothing but her work.. long long long hours.. worked from a line worker all the way to the head of a department and took early retirement at age 60 because she developed carpal tunnel syndrome.. she had the surgeries.. but that was not the real problem.
She had a terrible disease called sclerderma...
I held her plastic like body when she breathed her last.. one year after retirement.
All that she had worked and saved for .. is now her sons.
My own life is a testimony that no matter what your plan is.. no matter how hard you try.. it can be gone in an instant and what was the meaning to it all? It is all gone now, like a puff of hot wind.
The reason we do this is because this is what gives our lives meaning.
It is the job God gave us at the beginning of our creation. We are to tend His world and His creatures.
We are to be good stewards of all that He created.
We are to be companionship for Him.
We are to multiply our numbers and teach the young this duty we have been given by the Almighty.
That is our job.
This is the meaning of our lives.
Our greatest mistake is to forget whom this world really belongs to. It is not ours.. It is Gods.
It is mankind's' fault that there is death in the world today. Pain and suffering. Inequality, lack, and seemingly wasted effort.
It was not so in the beginning. The nature of mankind brought the things which confound us, and cause us to ask, " WHAT IS IT ALL FOR?"
I will sum this up by telling you this little tale from a day spent at the cemetery, smoothing my fathers new grave into something that could be mowed. I was by myself, and feeling so lonely for just a little visit with my Daddy.
I talked to him the entire four hours I was there working. It was something he and I did well. Work and talk, getting work done and enjoying our time together.
I finished up and put all the tools into the back of his old truck.. got in and said, " Well Dad, if you can, would you give me a little hint as to what I should be doing with my life?"
I said, " I am gona start up Buford ( the name I call dads old truck) and turn on the radio.. and if you can, play me a song .. maybe you could talk back to me that way."
I turned the key.. the truck started..
I turned on the radio and Tim McGraw sang
" Live Like You Were Dying" to me.
I thanked Daddy and I thanked God for allowing me to have the hint.. and then I went home and to this day..
I can't think of one thing I want to do .. that should wait until I am 65 years old to do.
The meaning of life...
IS TO LIVE THEM
Retirement age is something I have never read about in the Bible. The word retirement is not in there.
When you reach the age when your not able to be the steward of the earth... it is usually time to go to our home with God.
What ever He has for me to do for Him when I get there.. only God knows that, best just let that question alone, it will drive you out of your mind. Don't make the mistake of putting off living till later..
That is the Real Purpose of Our Lives...
To Live Them.
I have watched so many of the people closest to me work so hard.. till they had no thought or time for anything but their goal .. no matter what that goal might be.. from simply managing to bring home a paycheck each week.. to trying to build a company from the ground up to be one of the greatest in the country.
I have seen them put off going on vacations.. doing anything that was remotely relaxing or fun.. because they were saving up their money for their retirement.
They lived and worked their entire lives for the days when they could take all the gains from their sacrifice of time in the prime of their lives and relax finally and do all those things they dreamed of doing all their lives.
I grew up in a home that was always filled with love and kindness.. taking responsibility for making our own way and helping others along the way, was our main theme.
All of the years that my parents worked and saved.. never taking anything much for pleasure for themselves.. looking to the years when it was just the two of them.. to enjoy what their hard work had gained for them.. was for nothing when my mother became ill at age 46 with Lupus.
My father developed Emphysema and had to stop working at age 59. They were too sick to do anything they wanted to do then. Their lives revolved around doctors visits and medications.. oxygen bottles.. and ultimately.. everything they had saved and the home they had paid for .. is now mine.
An uncle who was two weeks away from his retirement party.. he and his wife had their fifth wheel travel trailer already packed .. ready to head out on a year long tour of the USA.
He dropped dead of a heart attack two weeks before his retirement party..
All they had waited to do .. all that they had sacrificed to be able to do in their later years.. now belongs to their daughter and son.
An aunt who was nothing but her work.. long long long hours.. worked from a line worker all the way to the head of a department and took early retirement at age 60 because she developed carpal tunnel syndrome.. she had the surgeries.. but that was not the real problem.
She had a terrible disease called sclerderma...
I held her plastic like body when she breathed her last.. one year after retirement.
All that she had worked and saved for .. is now her sons.
My own life is a testimony that no matter what your plan is.. no matter how hard you try.. it can be gone in an instant and what was the meaning to it all? It is all gone now, like a puff of hot wind.
The reason we do this is because this is what gives our lives meaning.
It is the job God gave us at the beginning of our creation. We are to tend His world and His creatures.
We are to be good stewards of all that He created.
We are to be companionship for Him.
We are to multiply our numbers and teach the young this duty we have been given by the Almighty.
That is our job.
This is the meaning of our lives.
Our greatest mistake is to forget whom this world really belongs to. It is not ours.. It is Gods.
It is mankind's' fault that there is death in the world today. Pain and suffering. Inequality, lack, and seemingly wasted effort.
It was not so in the beginning. The nature of mankind brought the things which confound us, and cause us to ask, " WHAT IS IT ALL FOR?"
I will sum this up by telling you this little tale from a day spent at the cemetery, smoothing my fathers new grave into something that could be mowed. I was by myself, and feeling so lonely for just a little visit with my Daddy.
I talked to him the entire four hours I was there working. It was something he and I did well. Work and talk, getting work done and enjoying our time together.
I finished up and put all the tools into the back of his old truck.. got in and said, " Well Dad, if you can, would you give me a little hint as to what I should be doing with my life?"
I said, " I am gona start up Buford ( the name I call dads old truck) and turn on the radio.. and if you can, play me a song .. maybe you could talk back to me that way."
I turned the key.. the truck started..
I turned on the radio and Tim McGraw sang
" Live Like You Were Dying" to me.
I thanked Daddy and I thanked God for allowing me to have the hint.. and then I went home and to this day..
I can't think of one thing I want to do .. that should wait until I am 65 years old to do.
The meaning of life...
IS TO LIVE THEM
Retirement age is something I have never read about in the Bible. The word retirement is not in there.
When you reach the age when your not able to be the steward of the earth... it is usually time to go to our home with God.
What ever He has for me to do for Him when I get there.. only God knows that, best just let that question alone, it will drive you out of your mind. Don't make the mistake of putting off living till later..
That is the Real Purpose of Our Lives...
To Live Them.
Tim McGraw ... Live Like You Were Dying
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UNITED FRIENDS WRITERS GROUP
UNITED FRIENDS WRITERS GROUP
lockerridge