Living More Than One Lifetime

Communication expert Anna Chui, who edits the website Lifehack, loves to write about love, life, and passion.  

Chui believes it takes about seven years to master a task, career, hobby, etc. She also calculates that since the average healthy person lives to around 88 years of age, most of us have about 11 different chances to become masterful at something new.  

For Chui, it all comes down to attitude, self-talk, and hope regarding how people will spend their 11 "lifetimes."  

She says some people self-talk their way into fear by saying, "I'm only trained to do one thing, and if I'm not doing that, then what good am I?"   

Others talk about themselves as though they are already dead gone by saying things like, "I used to be good at [insert thing they used to be good at here], but then [insert something that happened to keep them from doing that thing they used to be good at doing].  

But some people keep moving with hope and energy into their next "life," looking forward to what they will encounter, what new things they will master, and the next stage of life they will live.  

As Christians, we should totally get this.  

The God we claim to believe in is a God that is not stuck in the past, constantly pulling us backward.  Throughout the Bible, God continually cajoling, exhorting, wooing, and even commanding God's people to join God in the hope-filled and shalom-covered future that God is preparing.  

Jesus reiterates this with his followers when he offers the mystical and beautiful promise that he is going on before them on the journey and will prepare a place for them in the future—a future he promised to lead them to. 

Unfortunately,  so many people who claim to follow Jesus live out their faith as though they are staid, stuck, immovable, and unable to truly live.  

What will you do with the remainder of your eleven "lifetimes?"  Will you keep telling yourself that there is nothing new for you?  That you can't continue to learn and grow?   That your best years are behind you? 

Or will you begin to live with a renewed sense of purpose grounded in Resurrection hope?  

Will you trust that there may be new heights to climb and that God has given you all the strength and energy you need to climb them?   

May it be so.  And may the grace and peace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you now and always. Amen.