Wisdom-Trek / Creating a Legacy

Welcome to Day 76 of our Wisdom-Trek, and thank you for joining me.

This is Guthrie Chamberlain, Your Guide to Wisdom.

I Shall Not Pass This Way Again (Part 1)

Thank you for joining us for our 7 day a week, 7 minutes of wisdom podcast. This is Day 76 of our Trek, and yesterday we discovered the true meaning of encouragement. Today we will look at how that ties into the fact that we will not pass this way again, so we have to make life count today.

We are recording our podcast from our studio at Home2 in Charlotte, North Carolina. As I reflect on life regardless of our individual situations, I realize we have so much to be thankful for.  At best we only have 100 or so years to impact our world.

The impact that we have on others and the generations to follow is what will live into eternity.  We need to make each day count.  I struggle with this as much as anyone – maybe more than most. There are always deadlines to meet, bills to pay, and people to deal with, but let us not confuse the urgent with the important. They are rarely the same.

Although I don’t get outdoors nearly as much as I would like, the analogy of life being a trek is so important and fitting. We slowly go through life one day at a time. This morning was a reminder of how life is so much like hiking or trekking through difficult mountainous terrain. During my regular exercise routine each morning, I usually spend an hour running on our treadmill. Since both Paula and I use the treadmill nearly every day, a couple of years ago we invested in a treadmill that is connected to the internet and has walking, running, and hiking trails from all over the world through the use of Google Maps.  The technology is really neat.

Although I usually choose running courses, this morning I chose two hiking trails. The first one was the Sierra Trail in California, which is about 2 miles long, and the second one was the Deer Mountain Trail in Colorado which is about 2.5 miles long.  They were both uphill most of the way. While I usually jog or run, this morning it was only a fast walk at 4 miles per hour. The difficulties of these trails were certainly a stark reminder that some days life is an uphill climb and can be very painful for the moment, but if we keep at it, we will reach our destination…eventually. Sometimes it takes being infused with a little more courage to make it through.

 

As we think about infusing courage into our lives and the lives of others as I mentioned yesterday, it is similar to what happens when a person receives a blood transfusion. The person receives a life-altering experience that will help them to be fully alive. What we say to others and how we treat others each day is either infusing them with life, or death.  This also applies to what we speak into ourselves and how we treat ourselves.

Are you living daily or dying daily?  Each day is a new day. We will never again have a chance at today with its unique situations or circumstances. Although some seasons of life feel like we are on the proverbial treadmill or are reliving the same day over and over like in the movie Groundhog Day that is not the case. We only have one chance to get today correct. As was written by William Penn, “I expect to pass through this world but once. Any good therefore that I can do, or any kindness that I can show to any fellow creature, let me do it now. Let me not defer or neglect it, for I shall not pass this way again.”

Our words alone can have a significant impact on the lives of others either for good or for evil. The old rhyme “Sticks and stoned may break my bones, but words will never hurt me" is just not true.   As we looked at yesterday, words have the power of life and death.

All of us have a problem when it comes to controlling our tongues.