Advice for the 60+ Crowd

In this episode of the L3 Leadership Podcast, Doug Smith shares a powerful message titled Advice for the 60+ Crowd: How to Make the Most of the Final Season of Your Life.

After speaking to a group of seniors at a local church in Pittsburgh, Doug realized this message applies to every leader—no matter their age. This episode is a call to live with intention, finish well, and invest your life into what matters most.

Doug challenges listeners to think deeply about legacy, transitions, and the role they play in shaping future generations. Through personal stories and practical questions, he equips you to shift your priorities, strengthen your disciplines, and maximize your impact in the time you have left.

⏱️ Episode Breakdown

00:00 – Introduction and why this message matters
02:00 – Honoring the generation that came before us
04:00 – Doug’s story and the impact of mentorship
07:00 – Your legacy is what you set into motion
09:00 – The question: What do you want said at your funeral?
10:30 – Why transitions can leave people stuck or bitter
11:30 – What priorities need to shift in this season
14:00 – Thinking in terms of multi-generational impact
17:00 – Upgrading your spiritual disciplines
19:00 – The power of prayer and investing in others
22:00 – Why the next generation needs spiritual fathers and mothers
24:00 – Guarding against the wrong temptations in this season
25:00 – Reconciling relationships while there’s still time
27:00 – Practicing gratitude for what God has already done
28:00 – God is bigger than your last season
29:00 – “It will be better than it’s ever been”
30:00 – Final challenge: Will you spend your life or invest it?

🎙 Guest
Doug Smith – Host, L3 Leadership Podcast

🤝 Sponsor

Andocia Marketing Solutions – https://andocia.com

The L3 Leadership Podcast is sponsored by Andocia Marketing Solutions.
Andocia exists to bring leaders’ visions to life. Learn more at www.andocia.com

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Transcript

Doug Smith 0:00

Hey leader, and welcome to another episode of the L3 Leadership Podcast, where we are obsessed with helping you grow to your maximum potential and to maximize the impact of your leadership. My name is Doug Smith and I am your host. Well leader, I recently had the honor and privilege of speaking to a group of seniors over 60 here at a local church in Pittsburgh, and I had so much fun. And I talked to them about making the most of their final season in life. And it made a really, really big impact. And I recorded the message and I started thinking, you know, regardless of what decade of life you're in, I think that this message will add a lot of value. And so I thought I'd share it here on the podcast today, regardless of what decade you're in, and I think you'll get a lot out of that. And so before we dive into it, I would just say if your organization is ever looking for a keynote speaker or you want to have someone come in and speak to your team, I'd love to be considered for that. You can learn more about my speaking at DougsmithLive.com. Again, that's DougsmithLive.com. I'd love to come meet you and your team. So with that being said, let's dive right in. Here's how to make the most of the final season of your life. Good afternoon, everybody. How's everyone doing? Is this a high-energy audience or what? All right, can I get some more? How's everyone doing today? Carol, I want to thank you just for the invitation. I also just want to thank you. You talked about what we're doing for leaders. I feel called to do for the next generation uh what a lot of your generation did for me. And Jay, I so we we attend Northway. I had the privilege of having Jay be a mentor in my life. In fact, I started a podcast, and I think he was the he was in the first 10 episodes. And I was just this young 20-something punk who was hungry and for and as busy as Jay was building Northway and what it is today, he gave me time. I still to this day don't know why, but that's just who he was. And he was passionate about investing in the next generation. And so uh we're hoping to be faithful stewards over what you've entrusted to us. So thank you for that. In fact, I guess I'll just share how many of you, Northway, is home? Shazam, I guess that would make sense the Northway senior luncheon, right? So so Dave D'Angelo, I was just with him this morning, your current lead pastor, is one of my dear friends, and part of what I do with L3 is I lead what I call a pastormine group, and we have 14 ministry leaders, Ken Chevalier's in it as well. And the vision for this is that man, we want to make it to our finish lines with our marriages intact, our families intact, and our ministries intact. And we're so grateful that we had that example in a Jay Passman and a John Nuzo and a Jeff Leek and the generation that went before us. So I just want to really just start by honoring you and saying thank you. Was there a little clap? Anyway. Um but but thank you, right? Thank you, Carol, for paying the price of what it costs to plant this church and build it what it is today. And to see a church handed off to the third generation is just an amazing thing to see it thriving and growing, uh, is just beautiful. Uh, my father-in-law is here, who I'll talk about in a minute, but I want to thank him for his faithfulness. He served for 45 years as the dean of a mission at Carnegie Mellon University and made a huge impact there. I just met Dan at my table, was an art teacher for how many years? 30 years at Freedom High School. And we could go around the room. And I just want to say thank you for the jobs that you worked, thank you for the ministries you served at, thank you for the time that you spent serving, wherever you spent serving, thank you for the children that you raised, thank you for the grandchildren that you're raising right now. And does anyone have great grandchildren? Oh man, you guys are living my dream. Let's give it up for the great-grandparents in the room. Um, but thank you, thank you, thank you just for being faithful with the part of God's story that he's writing with you in it. Um Carol asked me to talk today about transitions, but before I do, I'll introduce myself briefly. Uh, here's a picture of our family. Uh so unique fact about me, we have five kids, which is super rare in my generation. Um, but we just went on a Disney cruise recently. My father-in-law is there in the top left corner, Mike, and my dad's to the left of me. Five girls, uh, Olivia and Sophia are our oldest, they're nine and seven, and then we have three boys uh younger than that, Caleb, James, and Luke. And then the two boys, uh the two other older boys are actually my nephews. Um I could share more about their story later, but it was an honor to have them. But that's my family, that's why we do what we do. And then I work at Light of Life Rescue Mission. How many of you are familiar with Light of Life? Right? When I came in today, we had I feel like half of you came up to me and said, I love Light of Life. We've been supporting forever, we've been down there. Uh, and I do want to call, we have two team members here today, Lori and Chris, if you guys can wave. Uh they're here today uh to answer any questions that you have or if you want to get connected. But we always say that two things set us a part of Light of Life. One, we've been serving on the north side of Pittsburgh, the homeless men, women, and children of our city since 1952. So this will be our 76th year of ministry, uh, and we're so grateful that God has sustained the ministry through all kinds of ups and downs. But we are Christ-centered. We we don't shy away from that. Christ is absolutely the center of everything that we do, and we believe Christ is the answer for what people need when they walk through our doors. Uh, on an average year, we'll have over 3,000 unique individuals walk through our door in need of something. They may need be in need of a meal, they may be in need of a night of shelter, they may need long-term recovery, they may need an education, they may need to get a job, they may need to find a house, right? And so, whatever their next step is, we want to have that for them. And that's our continuum of care. If you could flip to the next slide. So when it comes up, our continuum of care, basically, wherever someone is in their journey of experiencing homelessness, we want to have a next step for them.

Will Host 5:39

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Doug Smith 6:39

So with that being said, I want to talk to you about transition, but I let me pray first and then we'll get into it. Father, thank you so much for another day on planet Earth. Lord, thank you for this group. Lord, I thank you for Northway. Thank you for Carol. Thank you for the leaders of this ministry, Father. And I just thank you for this generation, Father. Lord, I thank you for the call that you had on each of their lives and have on each of their lives to make an impact. I thank you for their faithfulness to that and the impact that they've made with what they've set into motion with their lives. And Lord, I pray that their best days would be ahead of them and their most fruitful days of ministry. Lord, I pray that you would show each of them what you want them to set their hand to with the days that they have left, Lord, and that you would make a mighty impact through them, Lord. I pray for the next few moments we have together. I pray that you would speak through me, Father, that everything I say would come out of my mouth would be of you and not of me, Father. And I pray that everyone would hear something from you today, whether something I say or something your spirit whispers to them. In Jesus' name. And everyone said, Amen. How's my speech? So I I'm I certainly talk fast. I hear that all the time. Am I going too fast? Do I need to slow it down on the podcast dial? Yes? Yes, yes, yeah, yeah. All right. I'll try. Hold your hands up if you're like, slow down, slow down. All right. Here we go. So I want to talk to you just about transition. And the question I have for you is if one day we're all gonna pass, and at your funeral, if your grandchildren were up here talking about your life, what do you want them to have said about you? What do you want them to say about you? I just went to a dear friend's funeral, Jeff Leek. If you don't know Jeff, he was the pastor of Allison Park Church, very similar to Jay. Jay and him were great friends. Jay was a mentor to him, and uh he pastored Allison Park Church for 35 years. And man, did he make an impact. And my wife and I went to his funeral service and I bowled for three hours. It was one of the most beautiful services I've ever been to in my entire life. Again, I have five kids now, so he has five kids. I still remember uh when when I had my fifth kid, he texted me that day and said, Welcome to the five club. Uh so I was officially initiated. But four out of his five kids spoke. And when I heard his kids speak, I'm like, This is this is it. Like, I can't think of a better like life lived than this. And the one one kid, I don't even remember his name, Lori would know. Uh, but he said, you know, growing up, you think you have a normal dad, and that everyone has a dad like you do. But as I got older, I went to college and started seeing other people's families, and what I came to realize is nobody has a dad like my dad. Nobody. Nobody has a dad like my dad. And that has been in my spirit ever since, and like that's what I want my kids to say. And and I hope that that'll inspire you. Like, that's it. Like, nobody had a mom or dad like I did. Nobody had a grandfather or grandmother like I did. Nobody had a great-grandfather or great grandmother like I did. And you have the time you have left, you can make that impact, regardless of what the past has looked like. Jeff Leak often said this: he said, your legacy is not defined by what you do, but by what you set into motion. It's not defined by what you do or what you did, but but what why you set into motion. And my question to you this morning is if God gives you another two years, five years, ten years, twenty years, what are you gonna do with it? Because the thing I learned about transition is people don't always handle transition well. And transition, there's thousands of transitions we're gonna have in our lives. You have all experienced probably hundreds of transitions. Transitions from being single and then getting married, that's a huge transition. From going to not having kids to having kids, to entering the workforce to getting in a leadership role, or right? And we all have these transitions in life. And they're not always positive, right? There's negative transitions, maybe we got laid off, or maybe it was time for us to move on and we didn't know what was next. But if we don't learn how to handle transition well, it can often leave us trapped, it can leave us bitter, and and all of a sudden we're paralyzed and we are unable to do what God's called us to do. And so I just want to I have a few questions for you and a few thoughts on transition this morning. And my hopes that you'll be challenged to handle transition well. Because you are all in a wonderful, wonderful, wonderful season that God can use you in amazing ways. So there's four questions that I want to ask you about transition. Number one, and again, if you're in a transitioning season, in the seasons you have left, what priorities do you need to shift? What priorities do you need to shift? There's this great book that I read that I highly recommend. It's called Die With Zero. Die with Zero. And the whole premise of this book is basically to give everything away while you're here. And it's a little bit geared towards younger people. He would say, hey, too often we overestimate what we'll need in retirement. Like you certainly need to save for retirement, but we should probably spend more now and do more now because we won't always be able to do it. And I've met so many people, I always remember this one time I was meeting with a donor, and it was right when I started Light of Life. I'm a young leader, and he grabbed me, and his wife had just passed away. He was 60 years old, and he had tears in his eyes, and he said, Doug, and like literally grabbed me. He's like, Man, if you have if there's anything you want to do with your wife and kids and your family, like do it now. Because me and my wife, we we we saved and we saved and we saved, and we had all these grand plans for retirement. And man, I don't get to do any of it with her. I wish I would have spent it now. And that's the whole premise of Die Wazero is like, do it now. And if you're older, his whole premise with Die Was Zero is hey, I always think of Scott Stevens. When Scott said when his kids got older, he said, basically, I view it my job now is how can I make my kids' dreams come true? And you are all stewards over the families that God's entrusted you with. Right? You are the matriarchs and the patriarchs, which is a significant responsibility. And I hope that you see it that way. Right? How are you stewarding the generations below you? A few years ago, Laura and I got introduced to a, my wife and I got introduced to a ministry called Family Teams. And it totally changed the dynamic of how we saw our family. And it basically said, hey, and in Western culture, unfortunately, we've gotten this wrong, and basically it's all about the individual. Like, hey, let's raise up individual kids to go do their own individual things and they just go off on their own. But he actually lived with a Jewish family for two years in Israel, and he learned that, man, in the Bible, you don't see that modeled anywhere. In the Bible, what you saw is actually a multi-generational family team on mission. A multi-generational family team on mission. It was all the family, and yes, they went into the world and did their own things, but it was all to come back for the family. And if they did it right, within a few generations, families could actually rule and reign in cities. And that's the vision that we have now. But what vision can you set into the next couple of generations for what they can do? Right? Like Carol, I know your family somewhat. Amy is a friend. Like, I think about the legacy of your family as a perfect example of what's inspiring me and my family. Like, I just saw, I think you were there. Weren't you? Isn't your grandson working in DC? And like he's on the front lines and you guys just got to tour that. I'm like, man, Jay and Carol, like their descendants, like could be influencing nations. Nations, all because a patriarch and a matriarch said, we're gonna live for God and live intentionally and give a vision for our family of what their lives can be three, four, five generations from now, way beyond when we're gone. And what if we started viewing our families that way? And and that was Eero, he he said he challenges us to like, hey, if you have finances, like why wouldn't you give your children, if there's wise stewards, why wouldn't you give that to them now or a charity now when they can use it rather than wait when you pass and they're probably in an age where they don't even really need that? How can you set up your family tree to rule and reign in the city of Pittsburgh or wherever God's called them to in the next few years? How can you shift your priorities to that? And as matriarchs and patriarchs, what vision can you put into your grandkids and great-grandkids? One of the things that we got from family teams that we've implemented is a weekly three-generation, one-table dinner, which basically just means my father-in-law and my dad always come over every Sunday night. And we want to have three generations at one table on purpose. And we want them to share. Like I want my father-in-law to share about his family and my grand and his wife and what their lives are like and what's important to them. Because I want my kids to be able to take that to their generations below them. What a beautiful thing you could do. Are you using and stewarding well the patriarch and matriarch rule that God has given you? Don't think that your kids and your grandkids and great-grandkids don't care what you have to say. Be intentional. Be intentional. Share stories. I'm I'm actually looking for ways now to actually, how can I document Mike and my dad's stories so that generations from now can see that? And I just found this app. Unfortunately, I don't have it on top of my head, but I'm looking into it. There's some app online right now where basically you can get prompted on your phone a bunch of questions and you can just record. Do you know what I'm talking about? Story worth story? Story worth? Story worth. I would send out an email, Carol, but but you can record stories, and man, your great-grandchildren can know what you valued and what was important to you and your family history. Why not leave that as a gift to the next generation? What a gift that would be. One of the greatest things I loved about Jeffson Memorial. Now he was a pastor, so somewhat of an unfair advantage, but his family has thousands of hours of reels of him preaching the word of God. Like what a gift. I'm sure you guys have that with Jay. Like, what a gift. What are you leaving the next generation? And it's going to require a shift of priorities. It may be make you uncomfortable, it may cost something, but there's nothing greater. Nothing, nothing greater. What priorities need to shift in this season? Number two, what skill sets will I need to improve in order to be ready for the next level? Some of these I already talked about. I just started talking my lesson out loud. But how can you become the best patriarch? I think I said all of that. How can you serve the next generation? Next. Boom. I covered my points without even looking. Number three, what disciplines do I have to upgrade in my category of growth? This is what I do want to talk to you about. What skill sets and disciplines do I need to upgrade in my life? The beautiful thing about the season that you're all in is you have time. I spend a lot of time with people in your generation because I crave wisdom. I remember, I don't know if you know the name Reed Carpenter. Um, Reed started the Pittsburgh Leadership Foundation. He's kind of a local legend here. I think he's 85 or 86. And the last time we met, he's like, Doug, what do you need prayer for, man? Like, I got time to pray. You don't. You have five kids. What the heck? Like, you don't have time to pray, but I do. What can I be praying for you for? Do you know, like, how is your walk with God? He said, My walks with God now at this at 86 are deeper and more meaningful than they've ever been. He said, Oh, sometimes I have no agenda. I just wake up and I can spend five or six hours in the presence of God, and God speaks to me and downloads things to me, and then I just go encourage people. What prayers can you set into motion for your family? I love this quote by Mark Batterson. If I can find where I put it in my notes. He said, prayer turns ordinary parents or grandparents into prophets who shape the destinies of their children, grandchildren, and every generation that follows. And every generation that follows. You have great prayer is so powerful. One of my favorite scriptures about prayer is in Daniel, and it said, when Daniel prayed, an angel said a command went forth in heaven. Do you know when you pray, commands go forth in heaven for it to be set into motion? I think about my mother-in-law. I don't, um, my father-in-law is here. My life was changed. I talked about my sister a little bit. I was a teenager that was on the same path as my sister. I was a drug dealer in high school. I barely graduated high school. I was headed down the exact same path. Now, God supernaturally intervened, and I'll just share that briefly. But when my mom passed away, I wasn't living for God. I didn't, I don't even know if I said that. My mom passed away. I apologize. She had a rare nerve disease in her legs. And in 2002, my mom died, my the beginning of my senior year. And when she died, I had seen her suffer so much that the only thing that really bothered me when she died is I didn't know if she had a relationship with Christ. And I had no idea why that bothered me. I had given my life to Christ in middle school and felt called to ministry, but I walked away not very long after that and wanted nothing to do with God. But every night I was getting drunk and high, and these thoughts would just torment me. Like you're never gonna know if your mom knew Christ, ever. You're gonna be 70 one day and still be being tormented by this. And one day, randomly, a distant relative named Chrissy called me and she said, Doug, I really felt like the Lord put you on my heart and wanted me to let you know that I was a nurse in the hospital and I led your mom into a relationship with Christ before she died. And I think God wants you to know that. Yeah. I had no relationship with her, none. And I was just a 17-year-old punk. And I always I give a whole nother message when I tell my story called uh Ordinary People Doing Ordinary Things is the only way that God makes an extraordinary difference in the world. And it was just this ordinary woman who one day felt like the Lord said call and she did an ordinary thing and called me, and I hit my knees and prayed. I said, God, whatever you want for the rest of my life, I'm yours. And my life has never been the same since, all because a mom obeyed God and actually picked up the phone and called me. Two weeks later, I randomly got invited to a Bible study that was led by Mike's wife, Judy. Judy went here at Northway as well. And this wasn't affiliated with a church, but 150 kids would go to this Bible study every week. And I went there, and basically how she started this was she felt like God told her to do it. And she was scared. She didn't think she could make a difference in the lives of teenagers. She said, Who am I? They're not gonna listen to me, not knowing what God was gonna do, not knowing that one day her future son-in-law was gonna walk down. So I walked down the stairs to Bible study. I saw this beautiful girl sitting on the couch, and I thought, hey, I could go to Bible study every week. This sounds awesome. And uh thank God Mike wasn't there. But uh, but I went home and I told my friends from high school, I said, I met the girl I'm gonna marry. And the girl I said I was gonna marry said went to her mom, Laura, and uh she said, Mom, I can't believe Doug came to Bible study. He's one of the most influential kids in North Allegheny, but he uses all of his influence for drugs and alcohol. If he ever got a hold of God, he could change the world. He could change the world. And for whatever reason, again, God, God set into motion. They, Mike and Judy started inviting me over for family dinners, and they started bringing me to church, and my whole life turned around. And do you know, one of my favorite quotes, this is uh by Henry Cloud, he said, Everyone needs mothering and fathering to reach maturity. But often it doesn't come biologically. You need to find it. And I don't know about you, but I found that. Do you know how many spiritual orphans there are in the world? Right? Do you know how many people desperately need you in this room to be a spiritual mother, father, grandmother, grandfather to them? There is a world desperate for you. I was speaking at a church several months ago, and I was sitting next to a woman. I I don't know if it was a senior lunch, but there was a senior sitting next to me, and she said, Oh my goodness, like I don't even remember how this topic came up, but she said, I felt like the Lord was dealing with me to start to serve, and you. Ministry and she was like 65 or something. And she said, I'm like, that can't be God. Uh, she was scared, but she ended up they they did a sign-up thing, and she went to the orientation and she got involved and she said, I'm a small group leader, and it is the most fulfilling thing I've ever done in my entire life. Every week I have an opportunity to pour into these young people who desperately need mothered and fathered. Desperately. What is God calling you to do with the time you have left? He's calling you to be a mother and a father to the next generation. Not just for your family and the family team I talked about, but there's people in this church desperately need you. Maybe you don't feel called to youth, but what is it that you feel called to? I'm thinking of a there's a senior couple at Light of Life, Dan and Rosemary. Uh I don't know their last name. Dan, they're just Dan and Rosemary. Literally, they're retired. I think they work more hours than I do at Light of Life. Like they're at our outreach center every day helping people in the community get food and get clothing and getting, it's amazing. What is God calling you to do? And this all went back to spiritual disciplines. This all started with prayer, right? It was Judy praying, God help me to make a difference with my life and him leading her to start a Bible study. Do you know there's people that probably were playing for Mike and Judy before they were Mike and Judy and before they were walking with God? And there were people that were praying for you. There were people praying for Jay and Carol Passman before they ever knew God, and who knew what God would do from them? Your prayers can set powerful things into motion. Maybe you need to upgrade your prayer life with the season that you're in. Upgrade your walk with God. What disciplines do you need to upgrade in this season? And then the last question is just uh what temptations do I need to be aware of? And this is just where I want to challenge you. Again, I'm I'm 40 right now, but I'm I'm very I've had a lot of loss in my life, right? Like my mom I lost, she was 55 years old. My mother-in-law, Judy, who I you don't all know her story, but she passed two years after I met her. She was 47. My sister was 32 when she lost we lost her. And I tell people all the time, like, if I only get as much time as my mother-in-law, I have seven years left. Less than that. If I only get as much time as my mom, I get 15 more years. And if I only get as much time as my sister, I'm living on borrowed time. Do you know how much of a gift it is that you've made it to the senior ministry? I hope I do. Man, the life that you've seen and everything you've gotten to do. But the temptations I think that can come to your life is that that you're what did I write here? The temptation is to stop caring or to think that your life is over or to quit investing in your kids intentionally. Or how about this leader? Leader, I always talk to leaders, but how about this senior? Man, the temptation to leave relationships unreconciled while there's still time. Can I just challenge you a little bit? I know too many 40-year-olds who have unreconciled relationships. And so I promise you, if you went around the room, there are people in here who that you have unreconciled relationships in your life. Life's way too short for that. Jesus gave us a process for that. Are there unreconciled relationships that you need to heal in the time that God's given you left? Don't wait, don't hesitate. Pray. Let God lead you. But God is not done with you. He's not. You're still breathing. One of my heroes is John Maxwell. I don't know if any of you know who he is. He's a leadership author. His dad just passed away. His dad was like 94 years old. And when they put his dad in a nursing home at like 88 or something like that, he's like, My dad is so amazing. He called me when he got in there. He wasn't even in there a full day. He goes, Oh my goodness, John. There's people here who need Jesus. There's people here who need love. These people here who need purpose. I've never been more excited about my purpose for my life. I'm gonna make such an impact. Until the day he died, he continued to lead ministries there. He continued to meet with people all day long just to lift them up. You guys are in the room because you're still doing something. Like, do you know how many seniors are out here that don't have a community like this that need it? How can you love on the people that God's put around you every single day? Who is he calling you to reach? The other thing I'll just I just like telling stories, I have about five minutes left. John Maxwell's dad, I was listening to him speak, talking about legacy. And he was just speaking at a conference, and he said, when his dad died, and um, this is a dream of my heart too, is like his dad was 94, and he knew it was just time for his dad to go. And so he went into the hospital and he told all the nurses and doctors, like, hey, I need some time alone with my dad, knowing that this would be his last moments. And if you know John Maxwell, he loves teaching, and he said, So for five hours, I taught my dad 29 lessons that he taught me in my life that made me the man that I am and allowed me to live the life that I'm living. Five. I told that to my father-in-law because I was excited. He goes, five hours. He goes, please, he goes, please don't tell me, talk to me for five hours. Just five five to ten minutes is great, Doug. Five to ten minutes is great. So we'll see what I do. We'll see. I don't even know why I shared that story. I just wanted to tease Mike. But but legacy, legacy. What temptations do you need to be aware of? And then lastly, just a few thoughts on transition. One is be grateful for the season of life you have had and the impact that you have made. I hope that you all take time. I'm a big journaler. When's the last time? There was a time where I was really depressed and um just frustrated in life. And thank God I have a godly wife, and I was moping around the house, and she said, Well, why don't you go spend time with God? I'm like, Oh, why don't you go spend time with God? But but I didn't say that. I agree. Uh and I said, okay, and I knew she was right. And I did go and spend time with God, and God led me to the book of Philippians, and I read the whole thing, but in Philippians 4 8, I remember leaping off the page that said, Don't be anxious for nothing. I forget what the next part is, and it says, but thank him for all that he has done. Thank him for all that he has done. And God dealt with me, He goes, I want you to start writing down everything that I've done in your life since you gave your life to me. And I just started journaling from the time I got that call with my mom, I just started writing out what God had done in my life. And I was a full page in, and I realized I was only like six months into my Christian journey. And I just started bawling my eyes out. I said, Who am I to ever not be happy or not be fulfilled or not feel like God has done so much for me? Do you know how much he's done for you? Do you know how blessed you are? When's the last time you took that into account and really thanked him for the life that you've gotten to live and thank him for the season that you're in? Gotta be grateful. The second, the next thought is just God is bigger than the last season of your life. This is why that John Maxwell dad story was so awesome. You know, I went through a hard transition where I thought God was done with me. Um, I was working for a big organization, and then I went to a small organization. I'm like, God's never gonna use me again. And my father-in-law was such a great voice in my life, and he would just keep saying to me, God, Doug, God is bigger. God is bigger than the last season of your life. God is bigger than the last organization you worked at. And that's what I want to encourage you with. God's not smaller today than he was 20 years ago in your life. He's bigger. He's bigger. He's bigger in your life. God is bigger than the last season of your life, and so expect him to do something greater in your life now than he did in the past. God is bigger than the last season of your life. And then the last thing I'll say as I'll close is soon it will be better than it's ever been. Soon it will be better than it's ever been. Isaiah 43, 18 and 19 says, But forget all that, it is nothing compared with what I am going to do. For I'm about to do something new. See, have I have already begun. Do you not see it? I will make a pathway through the wilderness and I will create rivers and a dry wasteland. And this was a word for me, better, just the word better. I was going through a hard time and I listened to this sermon, and the pastor just started exhorting on that word better. And he said, Maybe you've been sad, maybe you've been depressed for the past six months, and you can't even look someone in the eye without crying because of how you feel. But he goes, Oh, but but one day, soon enough, it's gonna be better than it's ever been. And you're gonna be able to look people in the eye and say that exact phrase, it's better than it's ever been. And I think if you apply some of these things and start living out your purpose and realize that God's not done with you, if you have been in that place of sorrow or feel like you have a lack of purpose, God will bring you to a place where it's better. And the other beautiful thing about the season you're in is you're literally about to be in another season where you will feel better than you've ever felt, you will look better than you've ever looked, and you'll be having more fun than you've ever had. And you'll be waiting for all of us to come see you. So I know transitions are hard, but I hope that this encourages you. And just as I close, just a closing question, uh, I wrote, What will you do with the God, the years God still has for you? Will you spend them or invest them? Because the people who change generations aren't the ones who retire from purpose. They're the ones who give their lives away. And my favorite saying from my mother-in-law, Judy, we have it on a plaque in our house. It says, She always said, Guys, the secret to life is to give your life away. And that's my prayer for all of you today that you'll give your life away and make a significant impact with the days you have left. Thank you very much. Well, leader, thank you so much for listening to my talk. I hope that it added value to your life. Again, if you're ever looking for a speaker for your organization, don't hesitate to reach out. You can get all my information at DougsmithLive.com. I also want to give a special thanks to our sponsor, Endosha Marketing Solutions. They are the producers of this podcast. And if your organization has any needs when it comes to marketing, I wholeheartedly recommend their services. You can learn more about them at endosha.com. That's a n-d-o-cia.com. And as always, leader, I like to end every episode of the quote, and I'll quote Billy Graham today who said this. He said, The greatest legacy one can pass to one's children and grandchildren is not money or other material things accumulated in life, but rather a legacy of character and faith. And that really is what it's all about. That's going to wrap up today's episode. As always, Leader, remember, don't quit. Keep leading. The world desperately needs your leadership. I'll talk to you next episode.