Growing up

     This morning I was reading over some old journals of mine. I love to read old entries I have forgotten. Here's one on growing up.

     You grow up into the person you believe you are. We always ask children what do you want to be when you grow up and then what happens?  Do these children grow up to become the person they know inside they are? Hardly, I think. Why?  They listen to the wrong voices in the world. The more they listen- the more they believe the wrong voices.  Then who they knew inside they should be becomes vague, so very vague until so much time passes they don't remember at all. How sad.  Is this why we become so sad?

     Sometimes I write snips and pieces of favorite books in my journals. One favorite is "Windows of the Soul" by Ken Gire. He wrote this.

"The future can fill your lungs with refreshing air and your heart with hopeful dreams. Do you hear it? Somebody calling your name, only in a language you can't quite understand? Have you recognized your calling or to what you have been called?  Do you recognize your name?"

    If I look back over my life I can put frames around the things that have brought me joy. If I look I see pictures. When I listen, what do I hear? Do I hear it above all that has called to me over the years. In a graduation address, author Frederick Buechner said, "The voice we should listen to most as we choose a vocation is the voice that we think we should listen to the least, and that is the voice of our own gladness."

    Life passes quickly.  My hope is that we all find the joy that our God intends for us to have.