This Is Your Life

My favorite Christmas present this year? The newly released set of This Is Your Life dvds. Oh my! This Is Your Life has always, since I was a child, turned me into an emotional wreck as I watched--in a good way, of course. I cry and laugh (often simultaneously) while I watch people reunited with those who had an influence on their early lives. How fun and inspirational to hear of the kindnesses actors and others were doing behind the scenes of their lives. How lovely to see their faces reflect joy and love and humility.

And, well, this past week as I've watched these amazing episodes, it has come to me over and over that right now, today, This Is My Life.

This Is My Life as I wash dishes and clothes and run up and down our stairs gathering laundry and Fiestaware mugs and bills to be mailed. This Is My Life as I arise in the mornings and pull back the heavy curtains at the windows to let the snow-light in and as I walk to the kitchen to make coffee, run back upstairs to read awhile, and then proceed to clean this old house with our furniture, old and new, which I love so much.

This Is My Life as I walk out in the snow to pull the trash can back into the carport from the curb along with the recycling bin, too. This Is My Life as I care for this home while Tom is away at work and then prepare dinner for him by the time he returns. This Is My Life while the retro-shaped radio plays music in the sunroom like the soundtrack from my life and while our cats play with their Christmas toys beside the fireplace. This Is My Life while I write in this blog and teach and tell stories of my life to people I have never met.

This is the only life I will have upon this Earth. I am determined to make it a good one.

I refuse to ruin it by spending my days wallowing in guilt or unforgiveness or trying to see into the future or reasoning my way through my days.

I refuse to stand before God someday as I give an account of my life and tell Him I knew better, yet I did not do better. I will not whine to Him that I couldn't help it if I was a sad, groaning, drunk-on-emotions mess. There will be no one standing beside me to point a finger at in blame, either.

Some people look for demons on every doorknob, but I choose to look for fairies. Some people concentrate on what's going wrong, but I choose to think about what's going right.

And some people choose to walk through this life alone, but since This Is My Life, I choose to walk through it with the Friend who sticks closer than a brother... the friend who squeezes beside me in my recliner, His shoulder to mine, while we watch tv or read or dream on snowy days such as this snowy New Year's Eve morning.

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"I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want." ... Philippians 4:12

"And so each of us shall give an account of himself to God." ... Romans 14:12