Today at approximately 5:00 PM CST (check local listings) will be my life’s half time. However, since this is a big event, I’m celebrating all day. So I declare today, May 7, 2008, my half day.
“What’s a half day?” you’re probably asking. Well, I was born July 15, 1974, at about 9:30 AM. On June 11, 1991, at about 1:15 PM, I almost lost my life. I went to work that morning, and a tractor I was driving that afternoon made sure I wouldn’t go home that evening, or many evenings after. I was – and am – just thankful that I was able to go home at all. If you do the math, before that day and time, I was alive for 6,175.16 days, or 148,203.75 hours, or…, well, you get the point. It was about 16.91 years. Now if you add 6,175.16 days to 1:15 PM on June 11, 1991, you get approximately 5:00 PM on May 7, 2008. So today, I have lived exactly half my life as an able-bodied person, and half my life as something other than that.
The “what-if” question rarely crosses my mind. What if I had driven on down that road on that tractor, worked the rest of that day, and went home that evening? How would these last (almost) 17 years have gone? My answer is that I do not know, nor do I care. None of us have much choice over what we’re given. Sure, some people are born into wealthier families; some live in better locations than others; and some are destined to be taller, more athletic, or better looking. However, wealth can go away. People can move. Physical attributes can change in an instant, as I learned firsthand. No, these things aren’t important. It’s what you do with what you have that’s important.
I look at life like an episode of MacGyver. At the beginning of every episode, MacGyver was confronted with some complex problem, and didn’t have $hit with him to address it. However, he would always come up with some ingenious way of solving the problem, using whatever he could find along the way. Wikipedia has a cool list of all the problems he solved (
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_problems_solved_by_MacGyver). For instance, in season 2, episode 8 (“Eagles”), “MacGyver destroys a building with a propane tank, a grindstone, and some ball bearings. He lets the gas from the tank loose and switches on the grindstone. From outside, he shoots the ball bearings into the building at the grindstone. Although he doesn't hit the grindstone, the bad guy he is after shoots a crossbow into the building, and does hit the grind stone. A spark ignites the gas, and the building is destroyed.”
As a Christian, I don’t think that things happen randomly. God has a purpose. He gives us all problems in life, but He also gives us the tools to overcome them. I’m happy to say that I’ve used almost every propane tank, grindstone, and ball bearing that He’s given me as well as I could have; and along the way, I’ve overcome my share of problems. I don’t know what problems I’ll face tomorrow, but I’m confident that God will have waiting there for me the tools I need. But he doesn’t make it easy. Nothing in life is easy. I’ll have to think a little bit about how to use the tools. At the end of the day, though, with His help, I will have made it. It’s worked for 33.81 years, or 12,350.31 days, or….
Psalm 37:24 – “though he stumble, he will not fall, for the LORD upholds him with His hand.”
Cheers!
