This year I turned 52. My goal is to share 52 things I want to tell my older self. Most of these types of conversations are about what we would tell our younger selves. Well, I’m not getting any younger and can’t change the past, so I may as well just settle into telling my older self a thing or fifty-two.
Keep Going
God-willing I’m over half way through this journey. The family joke is that I get ALMOST to the end of a long road trip, or challenging task and I want to turn around, or back out. I somehow convince myself that I’ve been going the wrong way the whole time and I just want to turn back. My kids knew (before GPS) they would get a phone call, as I was near the end of a long trip, and I would be in a bit of a panic. The only thing they would say is: KEEP GOING. Keep going mom, you are almost there. Don’t think about it, just keep going the way you’ve been going the whole time.
I have pulled my car over on the side of the road, on trips from Oregon to Montana, called the kids saying, “I just can’t, I’m overwhelmed and I don’t know what I’ve been doing for the last 13 hours of driving, but clearly I’ve been doing the wrong thing, and need to go home.” It seems it was the same story everytime; it would just hit in a little different area until I gained confidence in the way I was going.
Running and Getting Lost
Running, over the years, with friends, on unfamiliar trails; more times than not, at the end of it, I would want to turn around. Convinced we took a wrong turn along the way, and now we are lost. I can (unfortunately) be quite convincing to others, and 100 percent convincing to myself that we are lost and it is all my fault. I have endurance, but I struggle with confidence, unless I’m confident I messed up. Rebecca, a long time friend and running partner and I, have been lost together over many hours and miles. One particular time, we got picked up by a forest service ranger (knight in shining armor). When we told him where our car was parked, he was confused, because we were headed exactly in the opposite direction. We have no idea how far we went that day, or how far we would have gone, had we not been rescued.
Half-way Home
I’m over half-way through this life journey, and I’m not in a panic or feeling lost, but I’m also not to the end. I don’t want to get close to the end and get confused and convinced that I need to stop or turn around. Talking to myself, before it’s a problem, might give me some tools. Once the kids knew the call was coming, they were prepared with the right encouragement. The first couple of times that it happened, it threw us all off course; they couldn’t figure out how I got lost going straight on a freeway. Once they realized I was tired and confused, but not lost, they knew how to keep me going.
We Can’t Get Lost On a Well Marked Course
Runners don’t get lost on a marathon course, even though it is long. There are always people in front, beside, and behind running the same clearly marked course. We need people to go before us, show us how to be further down the road; encouraging us to keep going.
Turns Out, Older and Younger Need The Same Thing
In a nutshell, or a blog post; my first thing to share with myself; keep going, keep growing in confidence and joy in Life. Stay the course. Know the Way, and go the Way you know. Listen, and tell the Truth, and nothing but the Truth, to everyone who will listen.
Turns out, the things I am telling my older self is the same I would tell my younger self.
Follow Jesus! Keep going! Ask Jesus for direction every single day. Don’t wait until we are all tired and confused to know the Way, the Truth and Life. When we know Him and follow Him, we will never be lost again. We have already been found.
John 14:6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
