Posted on January 22, 2009 - by Andy McMahon

Bonus Years

I was telling Andrea yesterday that when I was younger, I honestly did not plan on living past 20.  Every action I took and every decision I made was on the thought that I was going to be dead by 20.  I wasn’t planning on offing myself when the day came, I just assumed that my lifestyle didn’t really have room for more than two decades.  I knew that how I was living was going to kill me, and I was ok with that.

I told her that every year past 20, I considered ‘bonus years’.  Years that I had never planned on living.  Today is my 6th bonus year. This year is a little different for me, because now, I am not only living, I have a life!  I have a wife that loves me, I have a family that cares, and I have friends that seem to give a crap.

Days like today, I do one of two things.  I look back on my life, and think about how I haven’t really done that much with my life. (Ultimately I realize I am only XX years old, and that my life has been SO full by now that most of the stories from my life I tell, people don’t believe.)  Or, I sit down and really praise God.  I mean, REALLY praise him.  I was not supposed to live past 20.  It wasn’t in my game book.  I have died.  My heart has stopped.  More than once.  I have been to the slums, lived there, been at rock bottom.

Jesus Christ came down, picked me up and pulled me out.  Jesus Christ was my intervention.  Because of Him, I am living my 6th bonus year.  Because of Him I sit here this morning, not just worried about being 26 but I actually think about when I turn 30 and 40 and 50.  I think about my children, and my children’s children.  I think about spending the rest of my life with a beautiful woman.  I think about living, I think about serving, I think about HIM.

Today, on my 26th.  I am not going to get down on myself because I haven’t done this, or I haven’t done that.  Today, on my 26th, I am going to move forward to live a life of serving Jesus Christ with my whole being.  Today I am going to celebrate the life that He has given me, (and it is a BEAUTIFUL life.) Today, I am going to look forward to serve.  Today, I am going to appreciate every heartbeat, every breath, and every thing, good or bad that happens.  This life is in ‘bonus years’.  I am not going to sit around and waste any more of them.

Thank you Jesus for saving me.  Thank you. Thank you.  Thank you! I love you God!

Amen!