“Viva Las Vegas. Viva. Viva Las Vegas.” Words famously sung in the sultry low tones of Elvis Presley.
VIVA. LAS. VEGAS.
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Recently, my husband and I visited the city of Las Vegas, and here’s what quickly struck me. So many of the people who came to Vegas seemed to have lost their way and their lives to addictions and seductions that kept them from living the life that was waiting for them.
Yes, there were thousands of people gambling. Yes, there were homeless men and women roaming the streets.
But this is what hit me hardest…the street performers—some with legitimately incredible talents—talent that could have possibly taken them to the life of their dreams, and all they could do with it now was sing or play on dirt-filled, people-crowded streets.
This couldn’t have been the life they had envisioned for themselves!
This shouldn’t have been the way that their gifts garnered them attention…dollar by dollar… over unsteady, rusty sound systems!
So how did these gifted individuals get to this place…a corner in front of a CVS on a street in
Las Vegas?
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“Viva Las Vegas”. Oh the irony. Viva means “long live.” And yet these words seem the opposite of the story of so many of the individuals roaming the streets of this song. Their stories don’t proclaim long life or life at all. They reek of lost life, lost hope…of people who somewhere along the way lost their way.
But this didn’t happen overnight. This destructive lost path. This corner destination that was so
far from the potential that I could see for them if only…
If only…fill in the blank.
…if only that job wasn’t left
…if only that drink wasn’t drunk
…if only that money wasn’t lost
…if only that “love” wasn’t chosen
Who knows what choices were made that got these people on those street corners to THIS. The THIS that is different than the THAT that could have been. If only different choices had been made or different steps had been taken.
Oh, Las Vegas…unlike Elvis, mourning comes from my lips, not praises, of the city that you are and the dreams that have been stolen, and I’m reminded of how oh-to-easily every one of us can end up on a corner we never intended to be on simply because we lose our sense of direction.
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A good sense of direction. Those will never be words uttered about who Kelcey Gropp is. “That Kelcey. She sure has a good sense of direction. You sure can trust her to get you from Point A to Point B easily.”
Nope. That’s not me. Instead, I’m the girl who goes into a restaurant bathroom and forgets which way to turn when I come back out. I’m the girl who has lived in a town for 6 months and still needs the GPS to get to her friend’s house. That’s me.
I know how easy it is to get off the path. I also know how frustrating it feels when you realize
that, “I’ve just gone miles past where I need to be.” Ugh. Not again!
But being a person who easily gets turned around and lost also means that I know how to get back on the right path and eventually get to the destination that I intended to get to all along. As I often remind my husband, “I’m still here aren’t I?!? I mean I haven’t been so lost that I never came home and just disappeared from earth.”
I eventually find my way back. And here’s how.
– Option #1: Pull over. Look more closely at my directions. Figure out where I got off my route,
go back to that point, and turn the correct way this time.
– Option #2: Thank goodness for GPS! Let that brilliant little phone lady re-route me. “Re-
routing!” And follow her lead.
– Option #3: Call my husband. “I’m lost. Help!” Thankfully, he can track me, find where I am,
and tell me where I need to be. (And this, ladies, is one reason I’m thankful I married a man
who DOES have a good sense of direction.)
Any of these options will work. Tested and proven. I mean…I haven’t gotten so lost that I have’t
come home yet.
But notice this about each of these options. Here’s what getting back on the right path to get to your destination takes:
– Determination. Not giving up. You can’t say, “Well, I guess I’m just gonna live here now…
wherever this is. I hope the taxes aren’t too high.”
– Pausing. Taking the time to figure out what’s gone wrong and not just forging ahead into the
mistake. You can’t say, “Oh well. I guess this is just how it’s going to be. I’m never gonna
recover from this mistake.”
– Asking for help. Whether from your GPS, a spouse, a friend, or a professional, we all need help from others to see the bigger “map” and to help re-route us back to the path we should be on. You can’t say, “I’ll just have to figure this out by myself.”
Whether you’ve messed up on following the directions to your friend’s house, arrived late to an interview because you got turned around, or found yourself on a street corner in Las Vegas drunkenly singing a blues song for hundreds of strangers, we’ve all had our moments—big and small—of feeling lost or like we’re off course. Perhaps you’re currently living in a season like this.
Do you feel like you’ve gotten off course in your life, and you don’t know how to find your way back to the path that you know you should have been on all along? Do you feel stuck in your current situation, and you don’t know what destination you’re supposed to be heading toward?
Are you in a job that’s a dead-end, and you want to get to your dream job?
Are you in a relationship that you should have never been in, and you can’t see your way out?
Is your health currently at a point that you would have never envisioned 10 years ago?
Or, perhaps…
Are you in a position where you are needing to be the directional guide for others in their lives, and you feel lost yourself?
If you can answer “yes” to any of these questions, then I have a way for you to get back on the right path.
Find a life coach.
It might be time to pull-over, look at your map again, ask for directions, and re-route with the help of someone else. Don’t give up on getting to your destination!
Life coaches are trained to help people see the map of their lives with more clarity and to help people set goals that will step-by-step get them to the destination and life that they’ve been longing for.
The role of a coach is like this…
As I was watching one of the street performers beautifully sing a soul-filled melody, I was imagining a producer from America’s Got Talent finding him. First, that producer could give him hope for a future, tell him what was true about who he was, give him a step of getting showered, then clothed well, then given an audition…then who knows what could happen. Step by step, that producer in my imagination could give that man who was completely off course find his way back—back to living…to long living…to truly “VIVA-ing.”
Most likely your situation is not as dire as this street performer that I didn’t even know but was rooting for. However, we all could use a little help, in different seasons of our lives, to find our way back—back to living…to long living…to fully living.
Don’t give up on reaching your destination!
VIVA LAS YOU!