Growing or Dying: Which one are you?

I heard someone say many years ago something that I often repeat whenever I face challenging times. “You are either growing or dying.”

As I get older and as life progresses, there are times where I get to point of feeling stuck. I feel as if nothing is a challenge anymore. In fact, I heard a theory awhile back that said the reason life tends to speed up the older we get is because we don’t have as many new experiences as we used to.

We can make the drive to the office without even thinking of the left or right turn we need to make. Our morning routine never changes. We sit in the same chair every Sunday at church and we go to the mailbox at that same time every day.

I think of it like a computer. When we have multiple open windows and the memory is full, the computer has to work harder to process the information. When the computer is brand new and has zero files saved, the computer moves at lightning speed.

Ferris Bueller said it best in the movie “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off,” “Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in awhile, you could miss it.”

Do you want to be the person that when you finally stop to look at your life, you ask yourself, “where did the years go?” Or do you want to be the one who looks at your life as an accomplishment of great success?

If you take a moment to ask yourself the question, “Am I growing, or am I dying?” What is your answer? Are you slowly losing value or are you continuously gaining worth?

As we we were sitting around the dinner table this evening and conversing about our day and the plans for tomorrow as we usually do; and by the way, I’m usually just listening because our two older boys are married and out of the house and I’m outnumbered 3 to 1 by women; the subject of Grandma’s newsletter came up. She asked me, “how long is grandma going to write her newsletter? The one she writes every day. She’s been doing it for over two years. She’s always doing something. She never slows down.” My response, “you’re either growing or your dying.”

What can we learn from this simple phrase and a 74 year old woman who seems to never slow down?

I believe there are many things. You could learn that when someone finds their purpose, they are unstoppable. You could see this as the old saying goes, “when you do what you love, you will never work another day in your life.” Another picture you could envision is one of a motivated, intentional individual who will stop at nothing to get people to see the God, the Jesus she loves. That life is not a church attendance or a career move. Our time on this planet is not about a bigger house or another shiny toy. There is a reason that many people die soon after retirement. Many times because of a lack of purpose.

Im not saying that retirement is bad. There is nothing wrong with a fulfilled career or faithful church attendance. But….why do we do what we do?

I’m reminded of a conversation that God had with Adam and Eve in the book of Genesis after they had eaten of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Adam and Eve were hiding from God because they realized that they were naked and were trying to cover their nakedness. God was walking in the garden and calling out to them. “Where are you?” Their response, we hid, because we were naked.” To which God replied, “who told you that you were naked?”

My question. “Who told you that you had to have one career and then retire?” “Who told you that you had to sit in the same seat every Sunday?” Who told you that you had to go the same way to work every morning or repeat the exact same routine?”

We have become creatures of habit. We have become a society of insane individuals that does the same thing over and over again and expects a different result.

If we are being honest with ourselves, I can almost bet that most people want something different. Most people want change. Most people took a different path than we wanted when we were a child. Maybe you wanted to be a police man, but became an accountant or maybe you wanted to be a missionary but have never been outside of the United States.

Whatever you wanted with your life that maybe its time to be like Ferris Bueller and “stop and look around once in awhile.”

It’s never to late. Growing or Dying does not mean that if you stop growing, you will only die. It does not mean that you can never get back on a path of growth. It just means that you may need to shift your thinking just a bit. There are too many stories of individuals in history who did things late in their life.

Colonel Sanders started franchising the KFC chain when he was 65 and is now the 5th largest fast food chain in the world with over 30,000 locations. Sam Walton started Walmart at 44 and is now the largest retailer in the world with close to $700 billion of annual revenue. Laura Ingalls Wilder wrote her first book at 65 and became one of the most notable writers of the 20th century.

So what can you do? How do you get to a place where you are growing again? Its easier than you think. All you need to do is something different. I know it sounds simple, but sometimes, simplicity wins!

Read a book about something that you have wanted to learn about.

Change the flavor of your toothpaste.

Take a different way to work the next time you go in.

Sit on the opposite side at church next week.

Plan to go on a mission trip to somewhere you’ve always wanted to go.

Whatever it is, do something you have never done before and change it up.

When you begin to see yourself as growing instead of dying, you will begin to have a new life, a new energy, a new purpose.

We only have one life to live and each one of us has a gift on the inside of us that only we can give. The gift that God gave each and every one of us is not for us. It is for everyone else we come in contact with.

Are you growing or are you dying?