Kevin's Khronicles

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Growing up, some of my friends had either gerbils or hamsters in tiny cages with just the bare necessities, or more elaborate set ups that would resemble one of the popular games at the time, Mousetrap. All of them had one thing in common and that was a wheel the creature could spin until exhaustion or boredom took over.

I don’t know what it was that used to fascinate me so when watching one of these mammals spinning round and round going nowhere. I tried to get into their pea-size heads and wonder whether they were using the wheel to exercise; in training for some kind of animal Olympics, or did they think they were actually getting somewhere?

Whenever I get into a situation where I begin to take on too much to where my plate is beginning to overflow with projects, I am reminded of those childhood friends who had those busy little creatures spinning their wheels to nowhere in particular; just busy doing nothing.

In my poverty days as an actor in New York, I’d constantly hear the saying, Feast or Famine, when it came to work. The feast was always good, but you knew the famine was coming along without notice, thus one had to always save for that inevitable time. It always seemed the famine lasted longer than the feast, and there was that rare time or two before I switched careers and modes of transportation in the 90s, that there was so much feasting, I was feeling rather glutinous and actually prayed for a bit of famine to come along just so I could have a rest.

After retiring from cycling in 1998, I left that world completely and did nothing for some seven years, except putter around the ranch, as well as become involved in full time charity work, with the main time devoted to my church and community.

It was during the time I reached the pinnacle age of 40 and the debut of my website in 2000 that I literally saw my entire life before me on a (then) 13-inch screen. Was this all that I was and had become, I asked myself, as I saw the images laid out before me and the rest of the world. A third of my life was over (I go by the Moses age scale of 120 years of life given to me) and I felt as though I had really accomplished nothing. That I had wasted my life on chasing rainbows and turning dreams into realities, and look what I had become because of it, and now what do I do?... get a regular job like Joe and Jane Average?... who would hire me at my age?

Then I heard that still, small voice speak to my mind as it had been since the electrocution. It reminded me that I hadn’t exactly wasted my life; that I was being somewhat overreacting, and in the 40 years I had been in existence, I had actually lived a life, and now it was time to put all those years of experiences to some good use, as I was about to enter the next phase; the second generation of the life God had given me.

I suppose we don’t actually grow up until we’ve had a particular number of life experiences, and even though I felt I had entered my manhood at 30 upon completion of cycling the Great Wall of China, it wasn’t until I reached the age of 40 that I could see a purpose in whatever remaining years my Creator had decided to bestow upon me that could be put to good and valuable use.

That’s when I began to reflect upon the last words of Christ...

Most people think Christ’s last words were on the cross when He said, "It is finished..." (John 19:30) and then gave up the ghost, but in reality, one needs to continue reading to see the revelation that the Lord did indeed rise from the grave on the third day, and that after another 40 days of wandering the countryside, continuing to teach and perform miracles in His new and glorified body, He ascended into the clouds to a crowd of over 500, uttering, "Wait for the Holy Ghost and then you shall have power to be witnesses unto me in all the world..." (Acts 1:8).

This last commandment to the people and to the disciples that Christ speaks of, refers to an earlier parable of the ten pounds (or talents), in which the nobleman of the house gave ten servants a pound (12.5 ounces) of silver each and told them to, "Occupy till I return." (Luke 19:13)

It is this particular verse, or last commandment from Christ that has consumed me since the new millennia and the next phase of my life. Christ was always one who chooses His words carefully and with direct meaning to the minds and hearts of us all, and why they are so profound until the end of time and beyond.

The word occupy is a military term. It literally means, grab all that you can for me and in my name... And that means, grab the land, grab the people, grab their minds and hearts, grab the world to change for the betterment of mankind, grab all that you can as My servant until I return...

I try to live by this mantra not just in my daily walk with the Lord and within my character, but through those actions which I chose to do, such as the charities I pick that can extend that message of occupation in whatever way the Lord has directed them to be ministers.

And not just in the charities of my choice, but also in my work, for I have found for myself, that retirement is just being busy doing nothing; a wasted life, waiting to die, and that is not only a sin in the Lord’s eyes, but a crime deserving eternal death unto damnation.

Thus, I continually ask myself, how can I be a good servant to You, Lord, who created me for whatever purpose You would see fit for me to do?

And the Lord continually speaks to my mind, guiding me to where I should go and what I should do; training me for the purposes of whatever territory He desires me to occupy at this particular time and place. That I exist solely for Him, even though at times, the flesh part of me tends to stray from the path, which the spirit must constantly be at war with in order to stay the course.

Being a Christian is not for the faint of heart. I suppose if I really did have a choice and had not the wisdom God gave me when asked of it as a child, I would choose a different life; a different existence than the one I have now. And today, I would be dead because of that wrongful choice.

The Lord wishes to use our talents to serve His purposes, thereby multiplying the loaves and the fishes. I find that, like choosing my charities with a objective in mind, so too, do I choose my projects to serve His needs in some small way or another.

At the moment, I enjoy being creative within the film industry, just as I had some two decades ago showing the world what could be done with a new type of contraption called a mountain bike. Where this two wheeled wonder could go was left only to the imagination.

So, too, do I see this with film and the projects I choose to be involve with in some capacity, whether it be to wear a single or multiple hats on the job, I want those projects to have meaning. To be entertaining, yes, but to also hold a message; to get the audience to think, to ponder, to perhaps be encouraged and go after whatever the Lord touches upon their hearts and minds. This is the true meaning of work and of one’s purpose in life.

Anything else, and you’re just busy doing nothing. 

Kevin