There is HOPE

There is HOPE.

As 2020 comes to a close (can I hear AMEN?), I want to encourage you that there is hope! In spite of the many challenges this year has brought to most of us, a light is peeking through the darkness. I can see it in my three grandsons. I experience it when a kindness happens that doesn’t make sense. I hear it in the voices of family and friends around a cozy dinner table.

Thank you for participating in my blogs each month. Your words of encouragement, notes of refreshment, and messages of new insights from the written word mean a ton to me. May you enjoy a blast from the past as I share with you a message I sent out almost a decade ago. Maybe it is just what we need to be reminded of during this past year of uncertainty and yucky stuff that can snuff out the beauty and wonder of this season.

“How Did This Happen So Quickly?”

I guess I saw the signs…even though I tried not to notice it. Some were obvious, but others were tougher to make out. I remember my Dad always saying that “life passes by quickly” and my Mom telling me not to “wish my life away” when I was looking forward to something (like Christmas vacation!) but these past two years have been an eye opener.

Grey hair has now made its stubborn way into my head, as my wife and kids have boldly pointed out. The hip hurts on cold days. I am beginning to receive AARP mailers. The mirror is way off (so is the scale by the way!). My ‘hands look old’, Case says. Davis tells me I can’t jump. Sami laughs at my snoring. Mya just shakes her head.

“But really, how did this happen so quickly?”

Jesus lived 33 years, I am coming up on 50 years. He changed the world, I am struggling to change my underwear each day. My toenail falls off twice a year (I pacified Sophia by finally going to the podiatrist for she feared my discolored big toes were some kind of cancer that would work its way up to my aorta – it turned out that I need to cut my toes more often), my voice is getting higher (I am thinking of taking up smoking), hair is now growing out of my ears (that freaks me out a bit), I need to urinate in the middle of the night (I know, I know, “Put the seat up”), and my closet looks like a Ross pants rack (all pants arranged by sizes – 32in, 34in, 36in, 38in, you get the idea?). My students at school have adopted the vocabulary word “disheveled” to describe me (it could have been worse, we did have “soiled” as a word this year!). And my eyes? Does the word “progressives” mean anything to you?

There is hope my family and friends!

Although it cannot be argued that a new season is here for me (old age), life is so stinkin’ good. My 1987 Nissan truck is running. I have a job. We have an air conditioner that now works in the hot months. My wife really likes me 68% of the time. We have four kids who are so different yet so much fun it is intoxicating. The sun shines most of the time in the desert. God is still on the throne. And best of all – I am called a child of the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords!

We are honored to have people like you in our lives to grow more mature with (did you like how I worded that?). May 2021 be a year where we all put our trust and security in the One who is bigger and better than ourselves.