If I Had 15 Minutes to Live….

If I had 15 minutes to live, I would probably get as close to my wife and kids as possible. But besides that, I think it would be good to try and write something down for the world. It would go a little something like this:

There are absolutely no limits in life. Wherever you aim is pretty much where you end up. I managed to accomplish some good things in a relatively short life. At the top of that list is leading and inspiring other people to have a closer relationship with Christ/deeper sense of spirituality, or whatever you want to call it. I’ve achieved more than the average person I guess, but so much less than so many of the greats. I always knew I was capable of more, but it was like I was waiting for the next level to come to me–waiting until I got tired enough of my current situation that I had no choice but to change. That works; anger, pain, and dissatisfaction are probably our strongest motivators. But if I could leave people with something, I’d tell them there’s no reason to wait until you’re diagnosed with diabetes or about to get divorced or running from creditors for years before you decide to make a change. In fact, the sooner you start, the easier it will be. For example, I’ve told myself  for the last 3 years that by the time I was 50 or 60, I wanted to be considered in the conversation as one of the best preachers of my generation. I assumed I had 20 years to get there, but if I had known that today was the end, I admit, I would have worked a lot harder to get more exposure and to sharpen my skills.

On another note….

Since I’m about to die and don’t have to put up with so-called Christians anymore, I want all the truly spiritual people (and that’s everyone, by the way) to know that the religions of the world are teaching us essentially the same lessons–love, unity, self-control, peace, joy, faith…. A religion is something that people create in order to get closer to God. If someone wants to get closer to God in a way that you’re not culturally or doctrinally used to, that doesn’t make it wrong. I have learned a lot from Buddhist and Hindu writers in particular–things that are right in line with the Gospel. Don’t ever let anyone limit your definition of or understanding of God, because they will limit your understanding of yourself at the same time.

Time’s up…