Defining Moments

Written by cycleguy on March 31st, 2009

We all have defining moments in our lives.  Some seem to be not so important while others have long-term, even eternal, consequences/results.  I was laying in bed thinking about this post and I started thinking about some defining moments in my life (and yes I should have gotten up and written them down because I have forgotten many of them).  I just started rattling them off and only this morning did I stop to think how some were important while others were well…important.   Here are some of them:

  • At the age of 8 (1961) going forward during the Palm Sunday invitation to express my desire to accept Jesus and then be baptized Easter Sunday morning.
  • Pitching a no-hitter as a twelve year against Long’s Trucking in the championship game of the West Mifflin Little League.
  • Summer…1971…making a recommitment of my life to Jesus and a decision to enter full-time ministry while working at Camp Christian in Mill Run, PA for that summer.  I was already a student at Bible college but needed to make a decision from being basketball-minded to being God-minded.
  • June 16, 1973: a very humid late Saturday afternoon in a church building with no air conditioning and saying, “I do” to the love of my life.  She still is.
  • June 3, 1975: the arrival of our first daughter in Akron General Hospital…of being asked after about 8 hours of labor if it would alright to slow Jo’s contractions down to allow the mother who was trying to have a baby in the next room (and they could find no heartbeat) to have her baby first.  What else could I say?
  • August 23, 1979: the “surprise” arrival of our second daughter.  C-sections are planned and she was not supposed to come until September but when Jo reaches over and says, “I think my water broke” that changes plan quickly.
  • The decision that had begun in 1982, developed more in 1986 and “firmed” in 1994 to change from being a legalistic, opinionated, “I am right and you are wrong” to someone who was willing to learn from those “outside my circle of faith.”  I never have looked back with one iota of regret.
  • Taking up cycling in the late ’70s as a hobby, getting serious about it in the late ’80s, and giving up all other sports in ’93 (doctor’s orders) in order to be able to move later in life.  I have no regrets on this.  My current bike is a 10 year old Bianchi with over 20,000 miles on it.
  • Moving from a church in Terre Haute and living for six months with no ministry responsibility and ultimately 5 years later being led by God to Owen Valley Christian Fellowship (where I currently am lead pastor).

As you can imagine this is only a partial list.  And as I stated earlier some are important/some not so important while some have eternal or long-term consequences/results.  I have made many, many mistakes along the way-some out of sheer stupidity and some out of naivete.  Leaders realize there are defining moments in everyone’s life, when we must draw a line in the sand and make a choice.  I have made good ones and I have made some not so good.  There have also been defining moments in churches I have pastored-some good and some not so good. Will we or will we not?  Change vs. stagnation. Build or not build?  Churches and individuals are defined by certain moments that may very well determine their future.  I can say this about defining moments: they are also, for lack of a better word, change moments.  Will I change my behavior or not?  Will I change my way of thinking or not?  Will I change my modus operandi or not?  Those moments may determine whether something is good or great (to borrow Jim Collins’ phrase); whether something will have an immediate or eternal impact; whether something will rock someone’s world or be shrugged off as just another incident in life.

My life is a series of defining moments…so is yours.  Can you delineate yours? Have you sat down and taken a pen to paper or fingers to computer and done that yet?  It is a good way to evaluate why you are where you are today.  I encourage you to do that soon.   Along the way: do you have any defining moments you care to share with us?  I would like to hear of some life-changing moments in your life.

 

2 Comments so far ↓

  1. When I was growing up, I wanted to fly. What boy doesn’t? But I even went forward during a missionary week when I was in 5th grade, with two other boys and we all wanted to be missionary pilots. One of my friends moms told my mom she was praying for that for me for over a year (when we were moving to Texas).

    Well, because of that desire to fly – my desire, not God’s – I had written to my Congressman and Senators for an appointment to the Naval Academy, and though I didn’t get one there, I actually got a congressional appointment to the US Merchant Marine Academy, in Kings Point, NY.

    I turned it down, because getting into flight school from there was not likely. It’s important to note that I’ve only physically flown a plane once – a Cessna 150 and only because someone in my Reserve unit had a pilot’s license and they let me grab the stick.

    Had I taken that appointment, I would not be in the telecommunications field today, and while nothing is impossible for God, the path my wife was on, well it’s hard to envision it crossing that other path. Where I live, and many other life experiences most likely would not have happened to shape me into who I am today.

    Then there’s the motorcycle accident at age 19 where I was the reason for a highway traffic jam (at I-635 and US 75 in Dallas) for a mile in all directions, and 3mph was LITERALLY the difference between life and death for me. But that’s a different story. 😉

  2. cycleguy says:

    Will: young boy fly? Me? The one with a stomach so weak that his parents had to stop for him to barf while driving through the mountains of PA? But I thank you for your story. What an awesome God we have that HE would lead you to your wife in a round about way (to you). As for the wreck: I hope to hear that story some day in a post. Thanks for coming by.