Never Too Late

Never Too Late

The Lord said to her, “My dear Martha, you are worried and upset over all these details! There is only one thing worth being concerned about. Mary has discovered it, and it will not be taken away from her.” Luke 10:41-42

Nathan’s uncle Gene is quite a character, always engaging his church, community, and family in fun and unexpected ways for as long as Nathan has known him. Gene’s grandchildren especially delight in whatever “Poppy” has in store for them, whether it’s woodworking, home improvement projects, or playing board games on the floor. They never know what to expect.

His latest undertaking? Gene played the bugle when he was in the Marines, but he played by rote and never learned to read music, so his repertoire of songs has always been fairly limited. But, in the last year, he has started to take trumpet lessons so that he can learn to read music and expand his playlist.

Uncle Gene is eighty-six.

No matter—he’s still engaged in what is important in his life.

And there he sits for over an hour each day, practicing his fingering on the three valves, working on his breathing, and learning to read music while his family watches in wonder.

Uncle Gene figures this is as good a time as any to work on expanding his musical repertoire. True, he’s been battling cancer for a decade and has had a variety of other health ailments, but as he says, “If I don’t start now, a year from now I’ll be eighty-seven and still won’t know how to read music.”

Certainly we can all learn something from Gene—how thrilling it is to learn a new skill, to challenge ourselves, to make the most of our surroundings at any age. Will Gene learn to read music? I expect he will.

Is that the biggest point? I’m not sure that it is. It strikes me that Gene is doing something better than before. He is learning to do something important, like using and enhancing the gifts God has given him and in the process, leaving a legacy to his family and inspiring others to tackle new adventures. All they have to do is start.

Uncommon Key > What have you put off doing or learning? It’s never too late to do something you should do or want to do—do it now.