A Defining Description of Our Life
written by Rev. Dr. Scott Paczkowski
“Yet, O Lord, you are our Father; we are the clay, and you are our potter; we are all the work of your hand. ”
I love Diane Ackerman’s quote, “I don’t want to get to the end of my life and find that I have lived just the length of it. I want to have lived the width of it as well.” One of the quote’s wise lessons is that each of us has a different understanding of length and width. We understand the length of life to be the number of years God has given us. The width of life is far more complex.
The width of our life is how we live it. Our width becomes what we value. Each of us fills the width of our life. Mature people intentionally fill the breadth of life with what they value, and they know what brings meaning to their lives. The immature are easily manipulated by fads, shallow desires, and people who place expectations on others. God calls us to take control of the width of our life.
We begin by faithfully crafting our width, first by defining clearly what we value. If we can only choose three things in life, what would they be? God, family, a fulfilling occupation? Wealth, respectability, a comfortable life? Power, control, and options? Excitement, adventure, and unending experiences? None of these are necessarily wrong, so more reflection is required.
The complexity of life’s width is not linear. Faith, power, adventure, occupation, respectability, options, and more move in and through our consciousness. We are complex beings, so defining our life’s activity requires more than we are capable of creating. Our human sin will corrupt our decision-making, unless we invite God into the process of defining, refining, and sculpting our unique and valuable life. Begin each day in prayer, inviting God to be the sculptor of your life’s width. Alone, we will be limited, but when we invite God into the process, we will fill and stretch every corner of our life’s width.
