Focus Friday: Let's Focus on Why You Aren't Dead

I'm at the Cedar Falls Christian Writers Conference today. My brain is overloaded with inspiration and info for my writing, but I'm taking a few minutes to write this week's blog post.

My friend Mary Potter Kenyon led a workshop this morning called: Love What You Do, Write What You Love. It was excellent, but one thing she shared has stuck with me all day. She referred to an online article by Michael Hyatt:  Why You Aren't Dead Yet 

Isn't that a morbid title? It's hard to think about our own mortality.

Most people take life for granted. They assume that they will live to a ripe old age and die peacefully in their sleep.

When we watch the news we realize that life is not guaranteed. There are car accidents and cancers and mass shootings that cut life short. Sometimes mental illness strikes and someone decides that they can't take any more. They choose to end their life.

There is a thirty-year-old woman here at the conference with a heart condition. She has outlived others with the same condition and so, understandably, she worries. She doesn't know what the future holds, but she's trying to live fully and trust God with her days.

Michael Hyatt's article reminds us that there is some reason that each of us is still alive. God has something in store for us. A quote from Andy Andrews reminds us: "If you are still alive, then you haven't completed what you were put on earth to do."

As I consider life, this helps me. My life isn't over. God has things for me to do. I don't know if that includes writing, or speaking, or simply taking care of my family and friends. How exciting to wonder about what lies ahead.

I'm not dead yet, and neither are you.

"Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while, and then vanishes." (James 4:14 NIV)

"Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be." (Psalm 139:16 NIV)

Do you wonder what life has in store for you? Does it seem like all of your good days are behind you? How can focusing on God help you to realize that He has wonderful things ahead for you?