When I'm 80

I just found this on my flash-drive. It's an old paper I wrote for a human relations class. We were supposed to write a very brief paper where we would imagine being 80 years old and looking back on our life. How would it have been a success? Here's what I wrote two years ago:

“When I’m 80”
Cade Loven
Human Relations


When I’m 80, I’ll know my life was a success because, well, because I was happy. I try not to live my life completely focused on goals which I might not ever achieve. As a believer in God, I believe that the only thing that will ever make us happy is to do God’s will. It’s like we’re toasters, a toaster will not function if you use it to make coffee. Making coffee is not the toaster’s purpose. The Bible says that we are “jars of clay,” and that God is the potter.
With that in mind, I look at life this way: when I come to a crossroad, I first ask for God’s guidance, that he would either open, or close the door I’m about to enter. Then I try the door. The beautiful thing about this philosophy is that if I find the door closed, it’s not a defeat. I wouldn’t have become stronger or as satisfied with life, if I had forced the door open rather than listened to God’s spirit.
Here’s another side of this coin: I know plenty of people who are so desolate and are being persecuted for their belief in God (China, Korea, the middle east), and yet they do not despair. How can one be truly happy when they’re being beaten, tortured, thrown in prison, and even killed? I water it down to simply peace. I say my goal is to ultimately live a happy life, but what’s more important is to have inner peace. I may not be totally happy with where life takes me, but if I have peace with myself, and with God, then that’s all that really matters on this earth.
I’d love to think that I will have a loving marriage, Godly children, financial security, and freedom of religion for the rest of my life, but who really knows what will happen in my lifetime? I may want a wife someday, but who knows if I’ll ever find one I could live with until I die? I may be hoping for healthy children, but what if my wife is barren, or I am sterile? These are things that can break someone. Scripture says to store up our treasures in Heaven, not on Earth—a philosophy I have to remind myself of every day.
I have dreams of what I’d like to do in my life, but even if I never get to fulfill those dreams, I know my life will have been a success, because God is in control of me. I make a conscious decision every day to let go of the wheel, and trust God to take me where he wants me to go.
Some people live their lives never trying those doors that pop up during our life, they do so out of fear that something will change. They fear that either the door will be closed and they will face disappointment, or that the door will open, and their lives will never be the same. I’ll know my life was a success because I try those doors, and no matter what the end result may be, I’ll be happy.