"The days are long, but the years are short."

A thought by Bob Goff in his book, Undistracted (p. 38). Thomas Nelson. Kindle Edition. (Click on the book title to go to Amazon to buy the book.)

Now, that is a great way to put it.

Bob continues, "If you fill your days with trivial stuff, you will look up one day and a year or a decade or a half-century will have passed. Don’t wait until you are old to ask yourself: What have I done with all that time? Why not ask yourself right now? What am I going to do with all the time ahead of me? What do you want your answer to be? Once you decide what you want the future to look like, make a couple of moves like your life is actually yours to live—because it is. Quit the job, call the friend, make the apology, launch the dream, take the shot . . . heaven is just hoping we will."

He says, "I’ve spent some time exploring the branches on my family tree, and it turns out that most Goff men come from the factory like a windup toy with only a certain number of turns. We’re Energizer bunnies who just stop pounding our drums and tip over at about the same age. Because we all seem to keel over at about the same time, I’ve bracketed those dates for myself and have a clock that counts down from then to remind me how many days I have left. Does this sound crazy or morbid? I don’t think it’s either; I think it’s brilliant. Try it. Figure out how much longer you think you’ll live, set a timer to countdown from there, and see how it changes your days. I bet you’ll have fewer arguments and scroll social media less. You will look for more rainbows, find more waterfalls, and watch more sunsets. You’ll surf the waves instead of surfing the web, and you’ll trade reality shows for . . . actual reality. Simply put, your real life will be so good that none of the artificial stuff will distract you anymore."

Good idea. He goes on, "It’s easy to fall into the 'I’ll be happy when . . .' trap. We tend to think that happiness is something out there that we need to attain. This kind of deferral feels safe, but listen closely: It isn’t. Instead, what if you begin declaring for yourself with God’s help 'I will look for joy' without any qualifiers or add-ons? Paul talked about something on a deeper level. He talked about being content. (2 Corinthians 12:10) Why not go all-pro with this? Substitute the word content or the words fully present for the word happy, and you’ll really have a ball game: 'I will be content.' 'I will be fully present.' These declarations can create tremendous untapped power in your life. Here is the astounding part. You hold all the levers to make this happen if you want to. Does this mean you can control all your circumstances, setbacks, outcomes, and disappointments? Of course not. You can, however, influence them. We can eliminate the distractions that have been obscuring our view of what God is doing in the world. We will be changed from the inside out."

He then says, "We don’t need to hedge our bets against disappointment by keeping our expectations low. This wide, deceptive, and potholed off-ramp isn’t worth taking, and it won’t get you anywhere worthwhile. Assume instead that God is going to do inexplicably, wildly, unfathomably more than you could have ever seen or imagined. If that doesn’t make you feel a little happy and joyful, you need a sundae."

And that is so true! Yes, yes! #continuethought