Recently a 17-year-old by the name of Christopher Harding Jones from Georgia became the first person to successfully complete the latest American Ninja Warrior course.
This young man and his family were wearing tees that read “Living Wide.” This was a motto that the teen’s father lived by. Jones explained, “My dad built me a Ninja course. He started getting really excited about the prospect of me legitimately being on the show. But, about five years ago, my dad was diagnosed with stage IV lung cancer and given only four months to life. It didn’t seem fair, my dad never smoked in his entire life. My family’s worry was that he’d sort of give up and shut down.”
Instead, Jones said that his dad did the opposite and “coined the phrase ‘Living Wide.’ It wasn’t about the length of your life; it was the width. ‘Living Wide’ ended up changing hundreds of people’s lives around the world. He entered these groups with people with terminal illnesses and encouraged them to live their life to the fullest. Not only did it change their lives, but it also changed our family …. He was given only four months to life, instead, he lived four years.”
As I read about what this young man had to say, I was reminded of a verse in Psalm 90:12. “Teach us to number our days carefully so that we may develop wisdom in our hearts.” [HCSB]
Psalm 90 was a prayer of Moses. Moses had a lot of days, 120 years of days. I wonder what he was thinking when he wrote that we develop wisdom in our hearts when we learn to number our days? Think he would have agreed that “Living Wide” is much more important than simply “Living Long”?