The Forty Year Activity

While going for a run, I was reminded of an exercise I used to give teenagers when I worked as a family therapist.

It was a goal-setting activity where we worked backward. Where would you like to be in a year? To get there, where would you need to be in 6 months? And to get there, where would you need to be in 3 months?

As I contemplated the life of my family, I felt God calling me to think in a longer time frame.

Where would you like to be in 20 years?

I thought that was already a pretty long time frame. But as I started to ponder, I felt God calling me even deeper.

Where would you like to be in 40 years?

That changed everything for me.

In 40 years, I will be 82 years old, if God lets me live that long. Our daughter Isabella, who is not even a year old yet, will be 40.

As I pondered this, it put all of life into perspective.

When I pictured Eliana and me in our early 80s, it was surprisingly simple to know where I would like us to be.

Ready to meet our Maker.

To see our children on a good path. To have a great relationship with each other, our family, and close friends. To be able to look back on our lives and know we ran a good race. That we let God use us, that our lives bore much eternal fruit, and that we had been transformed into people full of love.

Then, with this perspective, we can work backward.

Where would we like to be in 20 years? 10 years? 5 years? 1 year?

It brings everything back to an eternal perspective. Chasing material goals suddenly loses its importance.

It brings us back to Jesus' words:

"Seek first the Kingdom of Heaven..."

And David's words:

"Unless the Lord builds the house, they labor in vain who build it."

When you start with where you would like to be in a few years, you are ultimately building for this life.

But when you start with where you would like to be at death's door, you are building for eternity.