Once, When I Was Young

Once, when I was young, I thought that I would be an important and significant person who would be remembered by the world for ages to come. My name would be in books and people would know who I was.

By the time I reached my twenties, there was nothing that made that seem to be an insurmountable goal although I had not yet achieved anything noteworthy and a doubt or two occasionally sneaked into my thoughts.

At the age of 39, I realized that I had not done anything that I considered to be all that important or significant and it was becoming apparent that achieving this status was going to be much more difficult than I had imagined. And, to further confuse things, I came to the conclusion that I would not live to be 40 years old. It wasn’t a morbid thought; it was just something that I believed would happen. Well, like so many other times in my life, I was wrong.

I am now 63 and my concept of what is important and significant has changed fundamentally from when I was young. My original (well, actually my copycat) thinking that I would be significant has been transformed to the point that I now know that importance and significance are essentially internal issues. How important and significant has my life been to me rather than to the world?

Here is WHAT is important and significant to me: my loving wife, my three wonderful children, my seven terrific grandchildren. Some of my importance and significance is measured in their happiness and their contributions to this world. However, what truly MAKES me an important and significant person is that Jesus Christ loves me and accepts me as His own.

And, my name is in one and only one book – the Lamb’s Book of Life. I need no more significance and importance than that and I don’t even deserve that.