• “I can start that tomorrow.”

When is the best time to plant a tree?  Yesterday!  When is the 2^nd best time to plant a tree?  TODAY.  You have to love that tomorrow is not even in the equation.  What do you want to do in your life?  Start today!  Is it a financial thing, a relational thing, a job thing, a personal thing, a project thing  — DO IT.  Make that first step of action today.

• “As you get older, this just happens.”

I love that my mom, at a great age of 79, bought a treadmill.  I love it, love it, and love it.  She turns 80 next month and she is still making lists, writing goals, and making it happen!  My dad learned the piano at 60, and bought a sewing machine at 65.  Mediocrity and settling in does NOT have to happen with age.  The middle-aged tire around the middle can come off, don’t fool yourself!

• “It’s just me . . .I can’t change.”

This is just not true.  We can all change.  We can all be proactive about change.  There are “tapes” that run through our head, and yes, these tapes are formed from our life.  Nothing is beyond change though.  I can tell you stories of people who have been to treatment, who have made it through marriage difficulties, battled through addictions, and healed relationships that were on their last “legs.”  We may have some patterns in our lives that are deeply worn . . . but we can all move toward change and growth.

• “My situation is different – it’s harder than others.”

I hear this one a fair amount in my job.  People from non-college towns will say that they would have volunteer leaders if they lived in a college town . . . staff in poor places will look to suburban places and say if “we had that, we could make it,” and people who have no adults to partner with will always say it has to do with the business or the culture we live in.  (For instance, California is harder to have adults walk with you verses the Midwest, because of the pace of life and the great weather.)  As my mom told me, “Bloom where you are planted kid!”

• “It’s the way I was brought up.”

I loved when one of my friends got up and shared about the generational issues in his family.  He showed pictures and told stories about how it was for him as a kid.  He then told some of the lies that he believed for a while.  He put up on the screen a picture of his family and his boys and said that it was his “call” in life to be the generation CHANGER.  Some of the sins, dysfunction, and abuse STOPS in this generation.  The room of 400 kids was silent . . . and then it erupted in applause.  They could see the impact and power they each held in their own lives.

• “I don’t have time.”

I remember a leader in my life saying this:  “Isn’t it funny how college students tell you how busy they are, they could not possibly help or be a Young Life leader, because they have NO TIME.  Then, they fall in love.  Suddenly, 25 hours a week opens up in their calendar.  We all have time . . . we all are given equal amounts of time . . . and our job is to give it back to God and be the best steward we can with it.  We have time – period.  We have lots of time.

Have a great FRIDAY!

Eric