The Lizard Way

"The Lizard Way" is a physical path through some sand dunes at Laguna Beach, Florida. Laguna Beach lies about 17 miles west of Panama City toward Destin. Growing up my extended family owned a beach house there. I say, the lizard way  is a physical path. It would be more correct to say that it was a physical path. It is completely invisible now  as it is covered over by a multitude of things. A home to a multitude of lizards and other small creatures.

My wife and I were invited to attend a very significant 50th birthday party today at a local country club. We were honored to be included with the 15 people on the guest list. One of those in attendance was a young lady who was in  my youth group, 1983-1985, at the McFarland UMC in Rossville, Georgia. Those two years proved fateful for me in so many ways good and not as good. But I digress. This young lady (50ish) told me that I helped her in very many ways during my tenure there. I asked her to tell me one thing that I said that helped her (cringing a bit as it's hard for me to conceptualize that I was much help to anybody).  She said, "You told us that if we wanted our lives to be significant and worthwhile then we had to make good choices."  That's it. That's what helped her so much.

"The lizard way", though no longer a physical path, is now a significant metaphor for me. The lizard way is the people and places in my life that helped me make the choices that I have made and have made me the person who I've become. That beach house is a lizard way. That youth group is a lizard way. That path is a lizard way. That birthday girl and her friend are lizard ways. This place where I am sitting listening to Lauren Daigle and writing this will one day be a lizard way. Last week I paid the taxes on this property. I won't always pay  the taxes here. You have to be an owner to pay the taxes. My ability to think and write will be a lizard way. My life will be a lizard way for others to follow. I certainly hope it's a lizard way for others. "The only thing that matters now is everything you think of me" Lauren Daigle just sang. "You say", Lauren sings. "I believe oh I believe."

I haven't always made good choices, but my best choice was the choice to keep living. I actually made that choice over and over during the darkest days of my existence before June of 1992.  I plan to continue to make that choice. Years ago I decided to come up with my central life theme. What choice is my central choice?  That choice is "life is good." No matter what is going on in and around me at any given moment, life is good. We'd all be dead without it.

I say "the lizard way" is not a physical place. That's not correct either. I can take you to the very spot along Highway 98 in Laguna Beach, Florida and point and say, "There it is. The lizard way." It probably won't mean much to you, but it means the world to me. I thank God for those who gave me a meaningful path  to follow. I thank God for Lauren Daigle and for good music and good choices. "I believe. I believe."