Take The Test

     I don't know anyone who really likes to take tests.  So why on this first day of the new year am I asking you to do something you probably don't want to do?  Because this test is very easy and the payoff can be enormous.  

     Every January 1st a majority of us sit down and decide how this year is going to be different.  We think through what we are going to stop and what we will start; habits we are determined to destroy and others we are convinced we can instill in our daily routines.  All two often it seems like we don't know where to start.  In our desire to make this year so much better than the last, we tend to bite off more than we can chew and that usually results in dropping much of what we resolve by the end of the first week.  

     So here is a simple place to start because we all need to start somewhere.  It comes in a statement by the American author Richard Bach who once said:  "Here is a test to find out whether your mission in life is complete.  If you're alive, it isn't."  So figure out what your mission is and then go for it with all the gusto you can muster.   You are alive today so make the most of it.  This past year with my diagnosis of Cancer I was awaken to the reality that nothing in this life is certain and we are not guaranteed tomorrow.  I still chew on that every day realizing over and over how I need to make every moment count, take in every breath with an understanding that it is a gift not to be squandered or taken lightly.  

     Another author  Alexander Woollcott said that there is no such thing in anyone's life as an unimportant day.  How true is that.  Tell the expectant mother who's doctor says her baby needs two more weeks in the womb in order to survive that days are "unimportant".  Tell the service man or woman preparing to head off to war that each day left with his or her family is unimportant.  Tell a person who's been told they only have months or weeks to live that one day is unimportant. The sum of our lives is made up of "days".

    Go ahead.  Take the test.  I dare you.  Pinch yourself.  Are you still alive?  Then God who has breathed His life into you, isn't through with you yet.  He has put you where you are for this time in history for a purpose.  Don't miss your mission, your calling, your purpose.