{"id":258,"date":"2016-05-25T15:11:14","date_gmt":"2016-05-25T15:11:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourmorningcupofinspiration\/?p=258"},"modified":"2016-12-10T14:57:12","modified_gmt":"2016-12-10T14:57:12","slug":"if-you-are-still-breathing-you-arent-finished","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourmorningcupofinspiration\/2016\/05\/if-you-are-still-breathing-you-arent-finished.html","title":{"rendered":"If You Are Still Breathing, You Aren\u2019t Finished"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Many people have the misguided notion that they need to accomplish their greatest achievements by the time they are 40.\u00a0 If they don\u2019t, they feel like their life has been a failure.\u00a0 That is what drives the stereotypical midlife crisis.\u00a0 \u201cIf I haven\u2019t done all I want to do by the time I am 40, I must go on a road trip to find myself, or get a Ferrari or pierce my bellybutton.\u201d \u00a0\u00a0I always find that view funny because expecting to accomplish anything truly meaningful before you are 40 is delusional.<\/p>\n

Life is like a toolbox.\u00a0 When we are first born, we may start out with a hammer.\u00a0 As teenagers, we may add a wrench or two.\u00a0 Then, when we are in our twenties and thirties, if we play our cards right, we might add some screwdrivers to our box.\u00a0 However, those still aren\u2019t a lot of tools.\u00a0 They certainly aren\u2019t enough with which to build a house.<\/p>\n

As we age, the idea is that we need to continue collecting tools.\u00a0 Some of those tools may be jobs skills, financial security and relationship stability.\u00a0 Those are our practical tools.\u00a0 Then there are the intangible tools we should be acquiring, like compassion, humility, and maturity.\u00a0 Those \u201cnon-resume\u201d tools may not be valued by the world\u2019s standards, but they are necessary to be happy.<\/p>\n

We shouldn\u2019t stop collecting tools until we stop breathing.\u00a0 We shouldn\u2019t stop learning, growing and hopefully maturing until God decides that our job on this earth is done.\u00a0 Until that time, He expects us to not only be collecting tools, but to be using them for the good of the world.<\/p>\n

As we get older, and\u00a0our toolbox gets fuller, we then have something truly important to contribute to the world.\u00a0 If we have lived well, then our life experience has given us wisdom that no twenty-something can match.<\/p>\n

That is why I find age discrimination in the workforce to be so bizarre.\u00a0 It is completely counterintuitive to want a company run by people with zero life experience and limited emotional maturity.\u00a0 But it happens all the time.\u00a0 In fact, in my opinion, there are lots of jobs that shouldn\u2019t be done by people under 40, with pastors being at the top of the list.\u00a0 If the world were run my way, no one would have children until they are 30 either.\u00a0 There are just some things in life that require age and maturity.<\/p>\n

The scary thing about aging isn\u2019t having a body that can\u2019t do everything that it used to be able to do.\u00a0 What is scary is not improving as a human being with every day.\u00a0 What is scary is not gaining wisdom from past experience.\u00a0 What is scary is to decide to stop growing when life isn\u2019t over yet.<\/p>\n

We have to always keep working at getting better, whether we are eight-years-old or eighty-years old.\u00a0 Remember that if you are alive and breathing, you are here for a reason.\u00a0 Figure out what that reason is, and then do what God has called you to do with all the tools at your disposal.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Many people have the misguided notion that they need to accomplish their greatest achievements by the time they are 40.\u00a0 If they don\u2019t, they feel like their life has been a failure.\u00a0 That is what drives the stereotypical midlife crisis.\u00a0 \u201cIf I haven\u2019t done all I want to do by the time I am 40,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":593,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[21],"class_list":["post-258","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-midlife"],"yoast_head":"\nIf You Are Still Breathing, You Aren't Finished<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Remember that if you are alive and breathing, you are here for a reason.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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