Oct 3, 2013

Out to Pasture

I’m getting older; there I said it. My youthfulness is fleeting away and I am coming to terms with my own mortality. I’m not in any way saying that I am ready to hang up my ice skates and put my hockey equipment into storage. Nor am I planning on stopping weight lifting or exercising any time soon. I just know that after almost fifty five years of life this body of mine isn’t any longer a spring chicken.

Actually, this week I have been thinking about dropping down to a less intense level of hockey game that I play in each week. Time to release my agent and let go of my dreams to play in the NHL!

I first noticed a decline this past year when an injury during a hockey game took a very, very long time to heal. The slowness of healing affected my weight lifting during that time period; especially my ability to lift heavier and heavier weights.

I also noticed it when Cathy pointed out that my “drive” wasn’t has strong as it had been for the past thirty two years of our marriage (actually I would say forty six years of drive). Um, yes; everything was still physically working great, praise the Lord; but my drive has been low and it was starting to affect our intimacy. I was becoming ‘content’ with having her go to bed without me; something that I didn’t like to do.

Could it be that my testosterone was lower than my youthful days and that is why it was affecting so many areas of my life? I knew that I was way too young to be put out to pasture or be content with sitting in a rocking chair or going to bed long after she did. I decided to take action and do something about it and went to the local health store.

Long story short, I found something that worked! And, the side benefits are that it also helps with agitation, trouble sleeping, nervousness, ongoing mental and physical fatigue, poor memory or forgetfulness, and skin cancer.

I’m not looking for the ‘Fountain of Youth’, (I’ll let Ponce De Leon continue in that quest) but I do believe that there are things that we can do to make a difference as to how we go through the twilight years of our lives. I should note that in my opinion, my parents are in better health in their eighties than they were in their sixties!

This idea of getting old is nothing new and it isn’t anything that we have to be content to settle for. In the Book of Isaiah chapter 40 we read; Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall”
 
But Isaiah goes on to tells us that we can be elevated to new heights in every area of our lives when we wait upon the Lord. But those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.” (Isaiah 40:30-31 NKJV)

Psalm 103:5 says; "Who satisfies your mouth with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagle's."

Life as we know it is short. Go out and grab all that the Lord would have you to do and live your life to the fullest; settling only for His perfect will and purpose for your life!       


 
New King James Version (NKJV)  The Holy Bible, New King James Version Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc.

 

1 comment:

  1. Dear Pastor, I think the hardest part of the Christian walk is the waiting. Even Abraham had a hard time "waiting", he created an Ishmael in his impatience didn't he. Waiting requires a kind of trusting which means not moving from the position of faith even when that position is under attack constantly from the reasoning of man. This waiting upon the LORD, I believe, is a position of deep confidence in Yahweh's Character, His Attributes. Apart from understanding this, waiting upon the lord (a god apart of the God of the Bible) seems pointless. Another passage I have grappled with and have learned to appreciate is where Paul says that his body is decaying, but his spirit is being renewed daily. Yet, the God of the Bible is also the God who honors the man Caleb by giving him a mountain in his eighties, and brags that his strength is better than men in their forties. What am I saying? I'm saying this: Pastor Tom, I have always viewed you as a Caleb ready to scale a mountain (didn't you build a mountain at MOA anyway>). Intimacy does change, yes, with age; just like wine, it is good when you allow it to breathe. I'll be keeping you in my prayers, ~ you have a mountain to scale.

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