What Are You Living For?

WE must live for something. However, there is a theory about old age. When life has whitted us down, when joints have failed and the skin has wrinkled and capillaries have clogged and hardened, what is left of us will be what we were all along in our essence. What will be left would be love for our immediate family members. Which is why we must plan our lives according to our beliefs. Therefore, a vision without action is a daydream. Action without a vision is a nightmare. Always have the courage to follow your dreams. Indeed, all knowledge without use to create a legacy is useless. Knowledge is worthless without use, so do something with your knowledge.

Never allow someone define you. You alone know yourself. Never doubt your own ingenuity for with doubts, you cease ever to prosper. Your potential is always greater than your actual. Do not listen to those who charge that you are too late. Jehovah’s promise is: ‘‘They will still bear fruit in old age, they will stay fresh,” Psalms 92:14. For 30 years, the century plant stands six feet tall and produced no flowers. But suddenly in one year, without warning, a new bud sprouts. The bud, resembling a tree-trunk sized asparagus spear, shoots into the sky at the fantastic rate of seven inches per day, reaching an eventual height of 40 feet. Then it crowns itself with several clumps of yellow blossoms that last a month.

Some of Jehovah’s oldest are among His finest. The older, mellower Abraham was wiser than the brash younger one. Caleb was still capturing giants and climbing mountains at 85. Anna, the elderly widow didn’t just pray for the Messiah, her vision kept her alive until Jesus came. In his nineties, imprisoned on the isle of Patmos, John the apostle wrote the Book of Revelation. Jesus said: ‘‘If you cling to life on your terms, you will lose it, Luke 17:33. You can approach life in two ways, protect it or pursue it. While the voice of safety says: Build a fire in the hearth and stay in where it is warm. The voice of faith says, build a fire in your soul; then you go out and pursue your vision with passion. Asked why he was still studying Greek at 94. Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, Oliver Wendell Holmes replied, ‘‘My Good sir, it is now or never. What matters is not the years in your life but the life in your years.” So live your dream till you die.

Becoming an efficient teacher is simple. You just prepare and prepare until drops of blood appear on your forehead. In the 1920s, Charlie Chaplin was the most famous person in the world. Born into poverty in England, he worked his way to support himself and by the age of 17, he became a veteran performer on the stage. At the age of 29 he did something unheard of, he signed the Entertainment Industry’s first million-dollar contract. But he wasn’t successful simply because he had talent and drive. He was also teachable. He kept learning and perfecting his gift. Even at the height of his career, this highest paid performer in the world didn’t rest on his laurels.

He said: ‘‘When I watch one of my picture, I pay attention to what the audience doesn’t laugh at. If several audiences don’t laugh at a stung, I tear it apart and try to discover what’s wrong. On the other hand, if I heard laughter I didn’t expect, I ask myself why that particular thing rang the bell with the audience.” The truth is, if Chaplin had replaced teachability with complacency and arrogance, we wouldn’t even remember his name today. There is an important principle to Charlie Chaplin’s success. He never forgot the basics. He committed himself to learning the basics of his profession. Eventually he co-founded United Artists, a mega-movie company that is still in business today. The Bible says: ‘‘Though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the truths of the scriptures.” If you want God to use you, you, you must stay teachable and never stop learning.

Our champion t his week is Charles Finley the American insurance executive and professional baseball club owner, who had great financial success in his professions. Born in 1918 in Alabama, USA, Finley’s Oakland Athletics won three consecutive World Series (1972, 1973, 1974). Finley was a farm boy who loved baseball in Alabama. After he moved with his family to Indiana, he went to work in a steel mill where he organized merchants into an industrial league. During World War II, he worked in a weapons factory where he showed an aptitude for selling. He later turned to selling full-time. During a two year hospitalization with tuberculosis he planned a new group insurance coverage for physicians. He then formed his own company, becoming a millionaire in two years.

Thereafter he bought the American League Kansas City Athletics in1960. He dressed them in green and gold uniforms, suggesting that the series be played at night and weekends. After falling out with the civic leaders, he moved his club to Oakland, Californian 1968. In his ownership career, (1960-80) he had 18 managers, but sold the club in 1980 retiring to his insurance business. He died in Chicago, in February 1996 a fulfilled and wealthy gentleman.