20200202 Casting Shadows

It's Groundhog Day, the second day of the second month of 2020.  Apparently, Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow, indicating an early spring (quick cheer from here).  The way I've written the date since my days on the flightline working on F-16C/D model fighter jets [YYYYMMDD] makes it a fun date to my pattern-loving mind:  20200202.  If you flipped the digits, they'd still be 20200202; it's a palindrome date.  Yep, I'm a total nerd, and I'm fine with that - it's part of my own unique wiring, my divinely designed framework made "just so" to equip me for God's purpose in my life - my chazown.

Image source:  https://www.foxnews.com

Chazown is a Hebrew term translated as:  vision, dream, or revelation; and it's the title of the book to which I'll be referring today and in the next posts which follow.  Specifically, the title is, Chazown:  A Different Way to See Your Life (2006) by Craig Groeschel, senior pastor of LifeChurch.  The key verse for the book and its accompanying resources is Proverbs 29:18, because without chazown, without vision, without purpose, we creatures fail to thrive, miss out on the joy and peace provided by a meaningful dream, die even as we live...we perish.  That's my own wacky interpretation of the verse, but I think you get the point.

In the first chapter, Groeschel describes the awkward difficulties people often have when talking about death, especially the death of a loved one.  I've seen this far too many times up close; but my family has buried so many in such a short span, that I've developed quite a skill at articulating emotions, experiences, and all manner of encounters with grief and loss.  Practice makes proficient, I suppose.  Thing is, pastors have these conversations often with those whose deceased were difficult to describe, their lives a blur of activity by no acclivity to indicate a lasting legacy.

The first task suggested by the pastor/author is to write your own epitaph.  My mind went on a few larks when I read this, I confess.  The first is not nearly as noble as the last...  Tombstone Pizza commercials from the 1980s and 1990s posed the question, "What do you want on your tombstone?"  Now that my frivolous tangent is confessed, the other hailed to a course I took during my military career on the Covey material, Seven Habits, the second of which is to "Begin with the End in Mind." 

I don't want to live any default story this world will pen for me in the void left by my lack of intentionality; just as I believe about wellness, I also believe we each have the opportunity to write - or at least influence - our own life scripts.  There are things we'd probably all love to edit, mistakes and mishaps and misery we would expeditiously "white out" or "backspace" over (remember White Out, anyone); but those past experiences are for a future post exploring this book, so we'll let that stay there and move forward...  In order to facilitate this beginning mindful of one's own ending, the composition of an epitaph, I'll present questions the pastor/author utilized as he wrapped up chapter one.

Jotting with Johnna:

• Consider these for yourself:
• The thing I placed highest priority on in my life...
• Folks who knew me comment that I "stood for" this...
• I impacted my sphere of influence and the world at large in these ways...
• God received glory from this action, attitude, or attribute...
• Others perceived my love for them because I did or said these things...
• When I'm "on the other side," I hope God will say "well done" because of this...

Remember:
Your story is still being written; and you are at the proverbial keyboard with no [Backspace] button or correction tape or [Ctrl/Alt/Delete], because life can only ever always be lived forward, whether you choose to focus ahead of you or avert your gaze.  You are so very worthy of the blessings which come from a life thoughtfully and intentionally lived; and it starts with a mindful contemplation of the end.

What do you really want on your tombstone?

Stay tuned.  Stay focused.  Stay well.