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Location: Charlotte, North Carolina, United States

Monday, May 10, 2010

SOMETHING OLD... ALL THINGS NEW!

Bad luck seems to come in cycles doesn't it!? A two week span of misfortune started one recent Friday night while playing for our church softball team. Minding my own business in the outfield, I saw a line drive heading my way. I ran up and over as fast as my 54 year old legs could go, stretched my right arm across my body as far as I could and the ball fell in my glove! It was the best catch I've made in years. An inning or so later, after the adrenaline had worn off, I was running to third base and felt something was not right. I couldn't move my right arm more than 45 degrees up. After a doctor's visit, an MRI, and another doctor's visit, I find myself in PT rehabbing my shoulder because of a tear in my rotator cuff. Not fun, but it sure beats the surgery I thought I was going to have.

Ten days after the shoulder injury I was at a plastic surgeon's office to have a mole-like growth and a precancerous spot removed from my forehead and temple areas. The doctor said he saw another spot that concerned him on my nose and a few other little snips and cuts that needed attention...so I said, "You're the doctor. Whatever needs doing." Forty five minutes later after removing all the ugly he could I left with 12 fresh wounds on my facial area. I had learned my lesson. Never tell a surgeon with a scapel in his hand, "Whatever needs doing!" Or don't go to a surgeon toward the end of the month who needs more billables.

Three days later I took my grandson, Evan, fishing. Erin came to pick him up at the lake and promptly caught the nicest fish of the day, a two pound bass, on my rod and reel. Being the good Dad that I am I volunteered to take the fish off the hook. Naturally the fish jumped while in my hand, thrusting the free hook in the lure through my right thumb. With all the sincerity in the world Evan said, "I'm glad it's you and not me Grandpa!"

If you're still with me after my sob stories there is a point to all this. It's not easy getting older! I've discovered how much I took good shoulders for granted, how painful it is to have lidocaine injected all over your face, and that a hook through your thumb can tempt even this preacher to cuss!

I've also found new comfort in the promise from Revelation 21: "Behold I make all thing new!" How wonderful it will be to have a body better than new. How freeing to be healed from all the emotional and relational scarring this world gives. What joy for the believer to be finally spiritually whole!

I love life with all its joy--and even with its pain. But like I've heard from my elders all my life, the older I get the more I realize that this world is not my home. I'm just passing through getting ready for the life that is to come. I'm excited about one day meeting Jesus and experiencing the perfection that only heaven can bring. I hope that the thoughts of eternity excite you and that you are prepared for that great reality.

BOOK RE-RECOMMENDATION: SAFELY HOME BY RANDY ALCORN WILL GIVE YOU AN ENLIGHTENING GLIMPSE INTO HEAVEN AND CHALLENGE YOUR DEPTH OF COMMITMENT TO CHRIST IN THE PRESENT.