鈥淵our left eye has changed substantially,鈥� my optometrist told me after my eye exam. 鈥淵ou鈥檒l need new glasses.鈥�
Only a year earlier, I had had cataract surgery, but in recent months, I鈥檇 difficulty reading my computer, and my vision blurred often. Now I knew why.
I chose new frames, black ones, with a black and white checkered strip across the top. 鈥淓zra, do you notice anything different?鈥� I asked my five-year old grandbean on his next visit. He squinted up at me.
鈥淵es,鈥� he said, as though I鈥檇 asked a silly question. His sigh seemed to say, 鈥淲hy ask me when you know this?鈥� He answered anyway. 鈥淵ou have a finish line across your forehead.鈥� Then he resumed playing, unbothered by my laughter.
Little Ezra spoke a truth he didn鈥檛 realize. Every human 小蓝视频 has a finish line across their forehead, one some of us will reach sooner than later. 鈥淲e are as grass,鈥� the Bible says in several places, 鈥渇resh in the morning, faded and withered by evening.鈥�
A few days ago, I had an email conversation with a precious friend. She鈥檇 told me earlier she wanted to write a book. I had encouraged her; she has much to share. But now she wrote, 鈥淚鈥檝e decided to downgrade my goal for writing,鈥� adding that she will likely only write for her daughters.
I pondered her words, my own goals, and our similar ages. 鈥淲e鈥檙e both reaching for Heaven,鈥� I wrote back, peering at my computer screen from under my plastic finish line, 鈥渃loser to that than the days when the sky stretched before us and the possibilities seemed endless. I鈥檝e had to rethink my own goals, too.鈥�
Will I ever finish the many books I have in my own files, waiting for compilation, editing, and publishing? If I portioned out a reasonable lifetime of, say, around, 90 (I鈥檓 optimistic 鈥� both my parents lived till their mid-nineties) how much time each day must I devote to completing them? More than I have, I know. And how many even more important aspirations would I have to ignore?
As the years fly, it becomes important to not only downsize our belongings, but to revise our goals. My friend added this gem to our conversation, gleaned from a book she鈥檚 reading. 鈥淒eveloping a process of becoming who you imagine 小蓝视频 is more transformative and lasting than just keeping your eye on the prize and doubling down to get there.鈥�
Our son-in-law Kendall said something like that in one of his sermons. I鈥檝e never forgotten it. 鈥淚t鈥檚 never too late to start to become the person you want to be when you鈥檙e old.鈥�
What do you want to be when you鈥檙e old? Start developing that process now. One day, count on it, we will awake to a true finish line. Our days of 鈥渂ecoming鈥� will be over. My question to myself these days? Whatever other goals I hold dear, am I becoming closer to, and more like Jesus? And if I forget, when I look in the mirror, my glasses remind me.
