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Here is my word for all of us today: “None of us have arrived!” We all have room to grow. My Dad used to say that if you were the smartest person in the room that it was time to find a new room. Life is a series of new adventure steps. Things become very boring very quickly when you act like that there is nothing new to learn. Situations can also become quite dangerous when you feign yourself to be an expert in an area that you never even took the time to begin.

Skiing brings out the pride in all of us. Especially when everyone knows they make the better equipment for those that have a more advanced level of ability. Why would  I want to use the kindergarten stuff when I’m ready to graduate to extreme sports? And who wants to go down the “Bunny Hill” when you can live to tell the tale of conquering the “Widow Maker?” Like so many other people tied up by their own pride, I nearly killed myself trying to prove that I was a better skier than we all knew I really was. Only the grace of God allowed me to see another sunrise.

Can you imagine if there were various colors that defined the many levels of lifestyles that it was up to us to choose to live our life today? The “Green Circle” would mean, “Beginner Friendly.” “The Blue Square” would indicate “Intermediate/More Advanced Tests” ahead. The “Black Diamonds” would lead to the “Fasten your Binders, Here we Go” opportunities. The “Double Black Diamonds” signs would point you to the ”Ready To Meet Jesus Today” runs. No matter what road you choose to roll on down, remember that it’s up to you how far you will go and how much you will grow. We are living in a day when it is to tempting to play it so safe, we aren’t even working up a sweat in unwrapping the gift that each day of life truly is.

Even though you might be impressing others on the outside, God always looks at the heart! This is no time to get lazy. We must not become complacent. Comfort is overrated. Being a student is a forever venture. We are not infinite. We are not perfect. We could all do better. The minute we start settling for sleeping in rather than stepping it up, our soul is in trouble. Age is no excuse to mail in tomorrow before you have properly addressed the package! The pandemic may have been a challenge for all of us these last few years to take on new excursions but too many citizens have shut down when adjusting the load on the road would have been a much better option. Let’s stop focusing on what we can’t do and let’s get creative about the hills that are still calling our name to swoosh its trails.

Growing and ‘going for it’ guards us from becoming guilty of the biggest sin in America today and that’s apathy! The nice thing about apathy is that you don’t have to exert yourself to show you’re sincere about it. The bad thing about apathy, however, is everything. God didn’t create us human beings to have others think for us, do for us, use us and abuse us. Each person has so much to offer. We have the entire future unwritten and we can’t muster the energy to even find where we put our pen. Could it be that we are tuning in lullabies when revelry is a much wiser choice.     

Back to the slopes of Vail, Colorado. I was on a ski lift. Others have written songs on the ride up the mountain inspired by the surrounding beauty. I fell asleep. I was in a deep sleep. I missed the entire experience because I was so dead tired, I couldn’t keep my eyes open. They woke me up as the lift was making its turn to return to the bottom. I literally had to jump off and let me tell you, that command to get off and get down snapped me back to full attention. What might have to occur in life to shake us out of our dreaded stupor?

Unfortunately, apathy can be chic. Rolling one’s eyes can look cool but it’s cruel to your heart.  “It Just Doesn’t Matter,” was Bill Murray’s battle cry in the 1980’s. Apathy is counterfeit insight. Political correctness wants to drain the blood from your body. Today’s tolerant movement is quite intolerant to anyone who disagrees. Anyone who doesn’t comply is just defined as stupid for not getting the inside scoop! Apathy holds an important chair in present-day cultural discourse, funded by the appeal of “Hmmm.” I’m sorry but the answer, “You’re right and You’re right and You’re right,” can’t be right! Truth by its very nature demands that everyone can’t be right! And I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to be wrong.

I heard of a man who had to take an international flight and wanted to sleep. Someone gave him the sedative Ambien, but he was skeptical. He took one pill and nothing happened. He took a second and still nothing. He took a third pill and this time washed it down with a glass of wine. When he woke up, he was sitting in a strange terminal, in a wheelchair, with drool on his shirt. He had slept so hard, the flight attendants couldn’t wake him up when the plane landed, so they just wheeled him out of the plane and left him at the gate.

Apathy is like spiritual Ambien, and because of a passionless population, too many of us have become just like the airline sleeping zombie. Are you so asleep to the reality of the fact that life here on earth is not forever that you won’t even allow the God who made you have a legitimate crack at waking you up? Numbing yourself up to the call of the adventure only makes you miss the wild of the wilderness. Regret is a terrible prize at the end of the race. It is important to understand that awakening is a gift and not an achievement. Sleep happens to us, and wakefulness is given to us in the morning. The one person in all the world that you cannot wake up is yourself. So today I have the honor to wake you up to grow for it! Your life depends upon it!