The Bottom Line

THINK ABOUT THIS:” WHAT IS LIFE AND LIVING ALL ABOUT ANYWAY?”

How many times have you said,” If I had to do it all over again……? Or the young person that says, “Life, what’s it all about, there’s got to be more to life and living than what I’m experiencing?” A seemingly endless series of circumstances that evoke a “why me?” statement that reflects total frustration with oneself and the seemingly apparent inequities of life. A life distraught with dissatisfaction, disappointment and weariness of life and injustices that are apparent or actual. As the “Preacher” in the Book of Ecclesiastes said, “I sought to find out acceptable words and that which I write to be upright words of truth” …Likewise, in this book I seek to find inspirational, acceptable words to share with you, words, thoughts, ideas and illustrations that will challenge and motivate you to take a long hard look at yourself, your life and your lifestyle and cause you to reflect on where you’ve been , where you are now and where you are heading with your life and to conclude for yourself---“Is where I’m heading really where I want to go with my life?” Please THINK ABOUT IT hard and long, but not too long. There are plenty of things you should put off to another day or time or even procrastinate about doing , but this one thing is not one of them. Do it now, you’ll be glad you did.

I would like to share with you some of the experiences, circumstances and valuable lessons that I have learned along my journey to where I am today. Since I am no different than you in most respects, I believe you will readily identify with much of what I will be sharing. As Solomon says in Ecclesiastes 1:9,10—“Is there anything new under the sun….?”. And then in Proverbs 15:23, Solomon says,…a word spoken in due season, how good it is”. Yes, “Timing is everything” in life and living. There is a time to be born and a time to die. What we experience and do with our life between those times, however long or short or brief it may be will have an effect-good or bad, on oneself and others. Our lives can be counted as having been a BLESSING OR A TOTAL BLOT! In this age of “choices”, our choices will determine what we reflect---BLESSING OR BLOT.

All of us seem to experience at least a couple of lives during our lifetime. As for myself, I’ve had two (2). The first lasted 33 years, which I’ll call BC (before Christ) and the last 36 years (and counting), I’ll call my new life experiences. It has been over these last 36 + years, that I’ve applied my heart and mind to know, and to search and to seek out wisdom, and the “reason” of people (beginning with myself), circumstances and things, and to come to know how easily a persons mind can come in conflict over the problems of life and become disillusioned with life’s experiences and finally give up in desperation trying to figure out the “why’s and wherefores” of their inner turmoil, frustration and total lack of inner peace, joy and meaning and purpose for living. At this point they conclude that there’s nothing better than the carnal pleasures of life---“eat, drink and be merry for tomorrow we die and that’s all there is to this life, there’s nothing for me after this”. What a sad and hopeless state of affairs. Have you ever been there and done that?

I find that even the nominal Christian also struggles with this concept while at the same time knows and even utters on occasion profound truths concerning man’s duty and obligations to God. We trust with all of our hearts that this Christian would emerge from speculations, doubts and reservations about Gods Word and reach the only conclusion that living out life is “to fear and respect the Father God’s commandments, for this is the whole duty of man, his children”.

The following is a reflection of my life BC (Before Christ), from a teenager or even earlier to age 33 years. My dream was to become a major league baseball player. I practiced and played it seems every day of my life. The result was that I was signed after high school graduation by the St. Louis Cardinals professional baseball organization. Great experience, but never got to play a season in the majors, not even an official “at bat”. I sustained a serious injury to my hand in a spring training game. I learned a great deal about people, baseball business and life’s circumstances. It was the end of a very short career. BOTTOM LINE, I never attained real contentment, peace of mind or heart or success.

As a young adult, completed college, graduating from the University of Miami, Florida. I thought that I would like to be a coach at the High School level. Never pursued it, decided I wanted to be a criminal attorney (must have watched too much Perry Mason TV), entered Suffolk University Law School, Boston. Lasted two years, dropped out. Great experience, learned still more about people, especially myself, legal business and more of life’s circumstances to deal with. BOTTOM LINE, never attained real contentment, peace, success.. NEXT, it was a relentless pursuit to become successful in the business world, entrepreneurial spirit personified. It seemed like every day I had new ideas to pursue, from dawn to dusk, creating marketing ideas and concepts, sell, sell, sell, everything and anything. (I should add “all legal”), had more businesses all going on at one time than anyone I knew. Somehow I made money in all of them, but never “big money”. Again, great experiences, still learning more and more about people, circumstances and the pursuit of the ever elusive dream. BOTTOM LINE, never attained real contentment, peace, joy or success. (real defined as “long lasting”). And sandwiched in between my workaholic lifestyle, I found some semblance of sporadic joy by grabbing a microphone and singing in any night club I found myself in. Enjoyed singing so much that I formed my own trios and quartets and booked myself into clubs all around New England. Some people thought I was good enough to go “big time” and I found myself on an album cover and booked into the big city (NYC) and Las Vegas clubs. Again,, great experiences, still learning more and more about people, circumstances and the ongoing pursuit of the elusive dream. BOTTOM LINE, still never attaining what my heart desired, real meaning and purpose in life and living. I was becoming more and more frustrated with the pursuits, but even more discontent with myself, everything was vanity and vexation of spirit. I found myself at 33 years of age, looking like I had it made. God had blessed me with a great wife and three wonderful children and I didn’t understand why I was so discontent with myself and life in general. Sure, I had a few disappointments along the way, but don’t we all? I simply chalked them up as tough breaks and kept moving on , so