What is a 'defining moment'?

By simple definition, a defining moment would be ‘moments in our lives that define who we are’. Lately, I have been thinking a lot about such moments in my own life. Partly because, as I am getting older I am facing the realization that I have fewer of those ‘moments’ than I once had. Greg Laurie, in his book Lost Boy, said, “Someone has calibrated the years of one’s life to the hours of the day. If you are 15, the time is 10:25 A.M. If you are 20, it’s 11:34; 30, it’s 1:51 P.M. If you are 40 years old, your time is 4:08; at 50, it’s 6:25; and so on.” What was so funny (maybe not so funny after all) is that Greg and I are the same age (55) and he went on to say, “So for me, the time is about 7:30 P.M-which is sad, because I’ve been going to bed by about 9:30 these days.” This has been precise time that I start yawning and thinking it might be time to turn in...to bed that is.

Another reason I have been thinking about such ‘defining moments’ is as a result of an introductory study I recently did in teaching through 1 Peter. I entitled the study, “Defining Moments of a Fisherman”, in which I took a look at 7 defining moments in Peter’s life. Moments that transformed him from the fisherman he was...to the man whom God wanted him to be. Each of those moments contained a wide variety of emotions to include excitement, confusion, shame and forgiveness. And, each of those moments...built one upon the other to ultimately mold Peter into the man we read about, the man whom most everyone knows something about.

And so it is with each of us! We come out of the womb, being defined by our surroundings, our family and any number of things. Initially we have little or no control over what defines us. Our parents make us go to school, make us eat our peas and so forth. However, eventually we complete control such moments, and that is when the challenge of life really begins!

Over the relatively short 55 years that I have been alive, I have lived through numerous moments that have defined, not only my life, but our nation and our world. I have watched many transitions...black and white televisions to flat screen color; computers the size of a large room...to handhelds; landline phones heavy enough to give you a hernia...to cell phones the size of a credit card; the first man to orbit the earth...to regular trips to the moon and back...and I could go on, but I won’t put you through such nostalgia.

So what does all this have to do with my blog? Simply this, in all of the years that I have observed people’s lives and the various events that define them, including my own, I have come to the place of having what feels like an insatiable need to write about them. Thanks to modern technology, I see “DEFINING MOMENTS” as an opportunity to do just that.

And so I will write, and if people read...cool...but if not, I will at least have enjoyed the process of putting my thoughts about the defining moments in my life and the world around us into words.