Growing old and other Matters

Jul 31, 2009

 
“It is not how you start, but rather how you finish that counts.”  Starting is usually easy.  Motivation is high, our emotions are stirred.  We are idealistic; we can only see a bright future.  Everybody is happy at the beginning!  
 
Finishing is another story.  Finishing well includes hard work and perseverance.  Discipline usually is required in there some place, real rewards are only attained by those who finish.
 
Like falling in love and marrying your one true love.  At the start you are sleepless, at times breathless.  You don’t worry about the cost of being together, the time spent travelling just to have a few moments with your true love.  It is as if no one else exists in the world.  We all started out that way.  But that is the easy part.  It is not the start, but rather the finish that determines if it was indeed true love and a marriage that glorified God.
 
Because of a culture of instant gratification and the need to experience life every moment, many are afraid to even try at a life of love and marriage.  Real love and a godly marriage is a lifetime of investment and sacrifice.  It is a life time of choosing to love and do what is right.  But the rewards!  As one who is 30 years in, the rewards are worth it!  
 
Many are afraid to even take the plunge or are soon discouraged along the way and give up.  They have become paralyzed by fear or failure. Those who never dare to start or those who give up during the climb will never experience the wonder and amazement of climbing the mountain to the very top.  
 
Can I encourage you to start well and finish better?  Go for the life that God has called you to; a life filled with love and real living.  Of course there will be battles and storms, but without the battle there is no victory.   If you do not attempt to really live, you are as good as dead already.  Just like a bank offering you a guaranteed certificate of 3%; sounds very safe but you are only guaranteed poverty.  Do not settle for a pathetic little start and a sad ending.  If God is for you who can be against you?
 
“The heights by great men reached and kept were not attained by sudden flight, but they while their companions slept, were toiling upward in the night.” Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
 
Leonard Rutten