When your story ends, what will your best chapters be?

When your story ends, what will your best chapters be? Will it be the last chapter of your story or will it be chapters written a long time ago?  Will your final story be a testament of flourishing or just survival?

Sometimes it feels like my best years are behind me.  They certainly are, if the measure I use is linked to my youthful qualities.  Especially if that involves one’s skin’s elasticity and lack of grey hairs.  The body tires easily now and doesn’t bounce back as well as it did in my 20s and 30s.  I have far more aches and creaks in my joints too, and I do not expect that will lessen. 

It makes me sad to see people give up on living when they get older and yet, I realise that sometimes you just run out of oomph!  Instead of leaping out of bed in the morning with optimism, you drag yourself out with a hint-or more of cynicism. When recent chapters of your story are lack lustre, you question if it isn’t all down hill from now. 

Something far sadder, is young people declaring their life is not worth living.  My heart hurts when a beautiful young person’s first few chapters are filled with hardship, grief and loss instead of love and promise.  Recently I looked into a beautiful young person’s eyes, declaring that I would miss them, if they gave up on life.  And ‘so, would your friend miss you too’, I declared.   I wanted to say so much more. I wanted to say that with help you can write new chapters; better chapters.  The beginning need not dictate the end. There are different and better chapters ahead.   

I am always encouraged when I see older women-and men, flourishing in their final chapters of their lives.  They inspire me to keep on pressing on.  My own father would plant trees, expecting to enjoy their fruit.  He would make plans for his next adventure, willing to keep writing those chapters until the very end. 

I see older women, even elderly women working out in the gym, stepping out on the line dancing floor and joining me for a 5 km park-run, and I am inspired.  I only started line dancing this year.  Some days I despair of ever getting the steps right or being able to enjoy the movement without my brain hurting. As if sensing my frustrations, one experienced dancer, twenty years my senior told me, ‘I started dancing when I was your age. Don’t give up.’  And so, I keep going. There’s hope for me yet, I realise.  And then there’s the fact that dancing is also good for my brain. Research tells me it can even make my brain younger!  

I want my final chapters to be my best chapters yet.  I want them to be chapters of flourishing and not just surviving. By flourishing, I mean growing, blossoming and bearing fruit.  Not just existing and staying alive until I die.  What if, the best chapters of my life are yet to be lived?  What if ALL of my experiences have prepared me for this moment and the one’s ahead?  How could ALL of that be used for good?   

There is something altruistic about doing good and leaving behind a legacy.  Not so that we are famous or infamous, but rather so that our life is bigger than the sum of one.  I also take heart to know that my life is not my own; I am first loved by God and He has a purpose for me being here.    I take comfort in knowing that no other person is like me and I have a place here just by being me.   I want that beautiful young person to know that too. 

No matter how much I’ve messed up or my previous chapters have been messed up, I draw comfort from these words from the Bible And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. (Romans 8:28 NIV)

And with His help, I am hopeful that when my story ends, the best chapters will be my last. 

Photo by Allef Vinicius on Unsplash