CHAPTER ONE:
LET YOUR LIFE SPEAK
IT’S POSSIBLE TO MIS-LIVE YOUR LIFE
I must warn you to begin. I am compelled to tell you something terrifying. We all have fears, but most of us aren’t terrified of what should petrify us.
I’m afraid of dogs. I was brutally attacked by a German Shepherd when I was a child. I’m a little afraid of flying. Never was before I had children. And I’m afraid of sharks when I swim in the ocean, even though I know statistically I have more of a chance of dying in a car accident, by drowning, from an accidental fall, or as a result of a medical error. Still I am afraid of sharks. Some people are afraid of snakes and spiders, others are afraid of the dark. But let me tell you what terrifies me.
I am petrified of mis-living my life. You can mis-live your life. Most people never consider it as a possibility, but it’s true. You can mis-live your life. Let it sink in. It is possible.
We assume that all lives are well-lived. It isn’t true. We deceive ourselves. Go to most funerals and you will hear about a well-lived life, even though everyone in attendance knows different.
A person’s adolescence and early adulthood is often referred to as his or her “misspent youth.” It is usually a playful reference to a period in a person’s life when they engaged in activities considered unproductive, lazy, wasteful, and even dangerous in hindsight. The idea of a misspent youth is often laughed off, but the truth is, there are a good number of people who engaged in exactly the same behavior who are in prison or dead as a result.
You can mis-live your life.
The disturbing truth is you don’t even need to do something significantly egregious. You don’t need to become a drug addict or murder someone to mis-live your life. You can do it in the most mundane and ordinary ways. It can happen so subtly that the people around you wouldn’t even notice, because you have most likely surrounded yourself with people mis-living their lives in exactly the same ways.
All it takes is the consistent application of mediocrity, laziness, procrastination, obsession with material possessions, and self-centeredness.
We speak of people who have lost their way and lives that have gone off the rails. But do you ever consider that you have lost your way, that your life is off the rails, and that you are mis-living your life? That’s the biggest mistake: Not even considering the possibility. Assuming that it won’t happen to you.
But perhaps the most heartbreaking part of all this is that by mis-living your life you will never get to see or experience the life God envisioned for you. You miss out on the life God wanted to give you. That’s heartbreaking.
We often wander carelessly through life as if a well-lived life were guaranteed. It isn’t.
What does it mean to mis-live your life? It is the opposite of a well-lived life. It means to live poorly. It means to lead a life marked by wasted potential and misaligned with all that is good, true, just, and noble. I’ll say it again: You can mis-live your life. But most people never think about it. They wander aimlessly through life, unconsciously assuming that all lives are well-lived, even though everybody knows people who have mis-lived their lives.
Have you ever mis-lived an hour? An afternoon? A day? I have. I have mis-lived too many. So many. I have mis-lived hours and afternoons. I have mis-lived moments and I have mis-lived months.
The problem is, put enough of those mis-lived days together and you will find yourself on the wrong side of a life well-lived. And that is a frightening thing. Finding your way back from such a place can be daunting. It is beyond diffic
