“Our outlook on life is determined by a few defining moments when God meets us and we meet God. . . . Those moments are more than memories from the past. They are spiritual astigmatisms . . . [the] lens through which we perceive the present and dream of the future.”- Mark Batterson
“The past is never dead. It’s not even past.”- William Faulkner
In Chapter 1 (“For the Love of Risk”) of A Trip around the Sun, Dick Foth shares an early historical day in his life. On June 10, 1945, three-year-old Dick was held by his dad in a crowd of shouting New Yorkers on Fifth Avenue. Wearing shorts and waving an American flag, Dick watched as New York police on horseback rode by.
Then, suddenly, General Dwight D. Eisenhower appeared, standing tall in the back of a gray convertible. Above all, Eisenhower flashed his famous grin and waved with abandon to the screaming crowds. Most significantly, that powerful image stays with Dick to this day.
Therefore, Dick underscores, the soil of high excitement and new possibilities nurtures tender roots. As a result, those tender roots produce a plant with spreading leaves. Thus, the breadth of our early experiences and the depths of our later experiences shape us. Our memories make us.
In conclusion, Dick exhorts:
“I have come to believe that from the moment of conception we are being formed with an adventure in mind. We were created to touch, taste, smell, see, and hear life. Our Creator has big plans for us. No settling for mediocrity. Rather, we have a high calling etched into our bones and written on our hearts. . . .
We were made for curiosity and more. That design drives us. It shapes our thinking and our dreams. . . . forms expectations of what life should be and lays the foundation of who we will become. It shapes our destiny. I would submit it is our destiny.”
Today’s question: How do your spiritual astigmatisms affect what you perceive and how you dream? Please share.
Tomorrow’s blog: “Hardwired for adventure”
