4k Weeks

There was a message at church that really got me thinking. It was about what we should make with our lives. Ultimately, we try to plan and overthink our life and try to insulate pain and avoid discomfort. We strive and work to control the outcome of things for ourselves and our children to avoid pain and discomfort. Here’s the link to the message.

I loved a point he made, “When we try to know and predict the future, we can lose the present.” I’ll be honest, my life was turned upside down 2.5 years ago. And while I’ve made some wonderful progress and feel like I’m in a really solid place, I still don’t always trust the ground beneath me. Part of that fear comes out in an attempt to over plan and know everything. Micromanaging those details take time and energy away from my joy.

Well, a targeted ad showed up while scrolling social media, and I made an impulse purchase and promptly forgot about it until it arrived at my doorstep. Whoops - haha!!

I opened it. My daughter cried. I was convicted.

This is my (expected) life in weekly buckets. Morbid? Maybe… it made my daughter sad. Every black square is 7 days that I have lived and cannot get back. But I see opportunities. What am I going to fill the empty spaces with? What trips or experiences have I been putting off? What mundane tasks have been getting my attention while I’ve been missing opportunities to make memories? I want to make that second half-ish of my life full of intentionality and purpose.

I put the poster up in my office. And I’ll tell you, I’ve been doing less laundry and been playing more cribbage with my son. I’m pushing trips out of the ‘planning’ stage. I’m spending time with the people I care about doing things that actually matter. Every square is a gift, and I don’t know which square will actually be my last.

As Ryan put it, you should:

I’m looking forward to doing more of both!

~Langley