If you are like me, well you are probably saying I don't want to be like that guy, I understand. Sometimes I don't want to be that guy either. God has been good to me and to my family. He has blessed us and certainly kept us. I was thinking of a pastor we had many years ago who was in his early 40’s at the time. He commented one day that he was entering the final 3rd of his life. I understood where he was coming from because I was right with him in age. Now when I think back I’m “in" the last years of my life.
OK, for those who know me this is not a public announcement of pending doom, it is simply an acknowledgment that I, under God's standards and time, don't have many more years left. To put this in perspective, Elaine and I are in good health. I have a physical coming up and am doing fine, well as far as I know. We are living life to the fullest and serving the Lord each day. Things may not always be what we would like, but that is true for every one of us. Our plan, as God allows us, is to enjoy His creation and those to whom He has blessed us to have in our lives. I mentioned this in a message I recently preached. That as a believer in Jesus Christ, your eternity began the moment you accepted Christ as Savior and Lord. It was for me and I truly hope it was for you. When this is true in our lives, then no matter what life throws at us, we can and will be able to handle.
Psalm 90:10 (NASB95)
10 As for the days of our life, they contain seventy years, Or if due to strength, eighty years, Yet their pride is but labor and sorrow; For soon it is gone and we fly away.
This is right for where we are in human history today. The days of Methuselah at 969 years are long gone. We may live a little less or a little more but by the time we reach the 70’s the end of life is so much closer than the beginning. Some may think this is a morbid subject, but I don’t intend for it to be. If history has taught us anything, it is that all life comes to an end at some point. You know, it is inevitable, like taxes.
Knowing the truth about something, makes it much easier to deal with. Death is like that or at least it should be for people. It is for me and let me say that I am not looking to leave anytime soon. I love our life, the family and the friends we have in our life. I love being with Elaine and doing life with her. We are planning a trip to celebrate our 50th wedding anniversary this year. As we are doing so, we're finding exactly how much time and preparation goes into such an endeavor. Looking forward to sharing that with you as we are traveling. We’ll let you know when the the time comes, but in the meantime keep checking into the blogs we are posting.
Elvis Presley sang about “memories, pressed between the pages of my mind”. Life is full of memories. Some of them are really great and others not so much. Surprisingly, when we think back over our life we will find more good days than bad. We can’t live in the past and none of us can go back in time. “Back to the Future” was a great movie but that was not real. Think about if there was time travel and in the future, they were looking to come back the year 2020 would have a red circle and a line through it and the button wouldn’t work. Can I get an Amen?
Let's be honest with each other. There is very little going on around us today that we find enjoyable. No one, and I mean no one, can predict the future. That is the actual of what will happen next and on what day and at what time. We can all tell the future in the big scheme of things. As the song says in the musical “Annie” The sun will come out tomorrow, bet your bottom dollar that tomorrow, there'll be sun! Recently, I was preaching out of Ecclesiastes 3 and verse 11 says “He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also, he has put eternity into man’s heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end.”
You know that pretty much sums it up, doesn’t it? Life is beautiful and as the writer mentions in the preceding verses of Ecclesiastes 3 in the Amplified Version verse 1 says ”There is a season (a time appointed) for everything and a time for every delight and event or purpose under heaven—“.
None of us are going to like and even appreciate all of the things that make up life. However, we can learn and then live this life each day and to His glory. We'll continue this thought next time.
A thought to ponder,
Elbert Nasworthy
