Can I Live to Be 140?

I was sitting at McDonald's yesterday, sipping my medium hazelnut ice coffee, when a thought occurred to me: "I want to live!" Now, not that I had a death wish before this but I suddenly had a new desire to see the next century. So for me to see the year 2100, I would have to live to be 140 years old. Not impossible. Others have lived longer. Methusaleh, Abraham, Moses to name a few. But where did this thought come from? I have a great life, an awesome wife, a wonderful family but when you live in a world where there are hardships, sorrow, difficulties, toils, trials or whatever other word you can think of to describe how we get worn out, the thought of living past 80 can feel wearisome. Then I thought, "I will certainly have to change some things if I am to attain this goal." For one, I would have to stop coming to McDonald's and drinking ice coffee everyday. I must admit that this lessened my desire to live that long but I was still wondering what made me think about this. Then it occurred to me that "change" is the answer. When you are stuck in the bill paying, house keeping, car driving, fast food eating routine that we call life and feel that we have arrived and this is how it is going to be, it is easy to say "Come, Lord, quickly." The last 2 years have been difficult at Axios. Meeting budget was a challenge. Seeing good friends being led away to other churches was discouraging. This is not to say that good things weren't happening also. The last 2 years have also been good. I have read more, learned more, grown more personally than I ever have and there were people getting saved and new families attending. But when it became evident that we had to move out of our warehouse space, I did not know if I had the energy to keep this going. I did not know if changing locations was going to make a difference. I knew that I didn't want to try another 5 years and still be in the same place. I was not unsure of my call just unsure of whether we were in the right place. So I began to pray. And God immediately began to move. And now we are moving to Denver. God is moving us to Denver! He has something more in store for us! It energizes me, excites me, scares me, challenges me but most of all it makes me want to live! It is true that when you stop learning, you stop growing. And when you stop growing, you stop changing, and when you stop changing, you die. What are you reading? Who is challenging you? What new dreams are you dreaming? What new challenge is waiting for you? Moving is not necessary but growing is. God wants to change you and make you cry out "I want to live!" Maybe I won't make it to 140 but I'll die trying.