Happy Friday Friends!
I hope and trust this post finds you all having a great day and a highly successful week coming to a close for you! It is such a beautiful day in Arizona today! The sunrise this morning was spectacular; it was cloudy and then, through a hole in the clouds, you could see the sun and the most beautiful rays extending beyond the hole in the clouds. It was truly remarkable. It has now rained - a rare occurrence indeed! - and it is a cool 85 degrees with cloud cover. Let's see how "happy" I am sitting out at Payton's football practice this afternoon when it is 105 - 110 with humidity!
As I am sure you know, 30 of our servicemen died in a helicopter crash in Afghanistan last Saturday. This week I was reading an article in the paper about their final trip home. In the article, written by Ben Fuller of the Associated Press, there was a statement that struck me as very profound. It stated, "For the families of the 30 Americans who were killed, it was a time to remember the dreams their loved ones had lived, not the ambitions that died with them." The statement challenged me and got me to thinking:
1. If I/we died today, what dreams have I/we lived? Each and every one of us has ambitions deep in our hearts, of things we would like to do or we would like to accomplish. Are we pursuing them and, in that pursuit, living our dreams? Or, are we just trying to survive, to get through the day, the week, the month and sadly, just through this life? It has been said, "Every man dies. Not every man really lives." We, as a society, tend to look at a "good" life in terms of the number of years that we were blessed to walk the face of the earth. I would offer that many of our soldiers who died, most way to young (in years) in my opinion, lived more full lives than the majority of the people whose freedom to pursue their dreams they were defending. Ironic isn't it?
2. What ambitions will I/we die with? I truly hope that when I have breathed my last breath it can be said that I had no other ambitions other than to continue to purse the Lord, to continue to grow as a person and to bless a life that day. I have said many times, if I do this life right, when I die they will find my One Year Bible opened to the date I died, there will be a leadership book opened and marked to were I finished reading that day and I will have an appointment with someone that day to serve them by helping them become the best they are capable of becoming in pursuing their ambitions. That I will have no, "someday I am gonnas..." or "I wish I couldas...". No, instead I will encourage those who follow me with stories of the ambitions I truly pursued and in that process lived my dreams. Of course, I will have been much better than I actually really was when I retell those stories!! :)
So my Friends, this day I want to challenge all of us to truly live, to live our dreams and pursue our amitions with everything that is within us. None of us knows the day or the hour we will be removed from this earth. It is my sincere hope and prayer for each and every one of us that we will have truly lived!
Please let me know if there is anything I can do for any of you. I would be honored and privileged to serve you any way I can.
Have a great day, a wonderful weekend, cherish your precious families & your time with them and please remember the families of the 30 Americans who lost their lives last Saturday during this time of grief as they mourn the loss of these brave warriors.
Kev
I hope and trust this post finds you all having a great day and a highly successful week coming to a close for you! It is such a beautiful day in Arizona today! The sunrise this morning was spectacular; it was cloudy and then, through a hole in the clouds, you could see the sun and the most beautiful rays extending beyond the hole in the clouds. It was truly remarkable. It has now rained - a rare occurrence indeed! - and it is a cool 85 degrees with cloud cover. Let's see how "happy" I am sitting out at Payton's football practice this afternoon when it is 105 - 110 with humidity!
As I am sure you know, 30 of our servicemen died in a helicopter crash in Afghanistan last Saturday. This week I was reading an article in the paper about their final trip home. In the article, written by Ben Fuller of the Associated Press, there was a statement that struck me as very profound. It stated, "For the families of the 30 Americans who were killed, it was a time to remember the dreams their loved ones had lived, not the ambitions that died with them." The statement challenged me and got me to thinking:
1. If I/we died today, what dreams have I/we lived? Each and every one of us has ambitions deep in our hearts, of things we would like to do or we would like to accomplish. Are we pursuing them and, in that pursuit, living our dreams? Or, are we just trying to survive, to get through the day, the week, the month and sadly, just through this life? It has been said, "Every man dies. Not every man really lives." We, as a society, tend to look at a "good" life in terms of the number of years that we were blessed to walk the face of the earth. I would offer that many of our soldiers who died, most way to young (in years) in my opinion, lived more full lives than the majority of the people whose freedom to pursue their dreams they were defending. Ironic isn't it?
2. What ambitions will I/we die with? I truly hope that when I have breathed my last breath it can be said that I had no other ambitions other than to continue to purse the Lord, to continue to grow as a person and to bless a life that day. I have said many times, if I do this life right, when I die they will find my One Year Bible opened to the date I died, there will be a leadership book opened and marked to were I finished reading that day and I will have an appointment with someone that day to serve them by helping them become the best they are capable of becoming in pursuing their ambitions. That I will have no, "someday I am gonnas..." or "I wish I couldas...". No, instead I will encourage those who follow me with stories of the ambitions I truly pursued and in that process lived my dreams. Of course, I will have been much better than I actually really was when I retell those stories!! :)
So my Friends, this day I want to challenge all of us to truly live, to live our dreams and pursue our amitions with everything that is within us. None of us knows the day or the hour we will be removed from this earth. It is my sincere hope and prayer for each and every one of us that we will have truly lived!
Please let me know if there is anything I can do for any of you. I would be honored and privileged to serve you any way I can.
Have a great day, a wonderful weekend, cherish your precious families & your time with them and please remember the families of the 30 Americans who lost their lives last Saturday during this time of grief as they mourn the loss of these brave warriors.
Kev
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