The Thing!

Today is December 11, 2014...1 days from my 50th birthday on December 12th.        The Thing.   No, not the 1982 John Carpenter movie with Kurt Russell (even though that was a great one - think Alien with more suspense!).  I am not talking about the rock looking creature, Ben Grimm, from the Fantastic Four.   I'm talking about your work, your calling, your gift, your passion and purpose...   The Thing.  Your Thing.   There is an expression that we used to use back in my day when we asked someone how they are doing.  The would answer,   "I am just trying to do my thang!"  or I am putting my thang down!"   There was hope in that expression.  There was a connotation of following a dream.  Now people might say,"I am trying to hold it down" or "Just working for a living" or as the youth might say, "I am grinding" (ok, at 1 day from 50, I may be a little out of touch!).  From how I see it, the optimism and hope have gone out of the way we talk about our work... which encompasses the majority of our lives.    Have you lost touch with The Thing?   The Tests - To let you know whether or not you are doing The Thing, there are all kinds of things people will ask you;   If you won 20 million dollars would you still do it? Sitting on your rocking chair at 90, what would you wish you had done? If you knew there was no way you could fail, what would you try? If you had 2 years to live, what would you do?     "Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything - all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure - these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important." Steve Jobs   Mortality is sobering.   Why wait for some "magical event", threat of death or live with regret.  To deny their true calling is making people sick.  They live lives of despair and daily torment.  Sure, that sounds over dramatic, but what happens to most people is that they get used to it.  It becomes their normal.   "Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life." Proverbs 13:12 NIV   What would you rather do - Make a good living doing something you hate for the next 40 years and enjoy 15 years of retirement, or struggle 5-10 years to have 70 years of joyful living doing The Thing?   I know you have to eat, put a roof over your heads and pay your bills, but there is more to life.   "Get busy living, or get busy dying." Andy Dufresne- The Shawshank Redemption I am asking you today to find The Thing.  If you know what The Thing is, I am asking you to pursue it.  No, don't walk off that job (that would be dumb!), but do like Andy Dufresne and throw a few rocks a day into the yard.  Think your way out, dig your way out, sweat and cry your way out.    Get out!   When someone asks you how you are doing say, "I am putting my thing down"...and mean it!   T.D Jakes has a sermon where he admonishes and encourages his congregation to   Dream about That Thang...Work for That Thang...Sweat for That Thang... Pursue That Thang!    I want to add my voice of agreement to his that you would live a life filled with (back to the King's English)...   The Thing!   Until tomorrow, I wish you Money, Power, Success!