Tug of War by Dr. Juan Harrison

Tug of War

I regularly have my Sunday school class of senior adults repeat our mantra, “The least valuable thing we have when we’re older is our wealth; the most valuable thing we possess is our relationships with others.”  A verse from Proverbs 23:5 popped up on my phone, “Cast but a glance at riches, and they are gone, for they will surely sprout wings and fly off to the sky like an eagle.”  Members of my class of 70-80-90 years are staring at the end of that long tunnel.  You can’t kid a kidder.  Above all things with age must come wisdom and acceptance of reality.  To grow old and not know what is really important is the saddest story known.  We’re reminded that there’s no fool like an old fool.

Sometimes as my wife and I discuss relationships between family and friends we know, I remind her of an obvious truth.  There are only two forces at work in the universe.  They are the forces of good and the forces of evil.  Each one competes for your time and attention like your children and grandchildren did when they were young.  We can pretend that we don’t know that they’re there, but they’re going to get your attention one way or the other.

We’ve often heard about the black dog and the white dog sitting on our shoulders as they fight to control our lives and the level of peace and joy and happiness we experience in our lives. Someone asked which dog controls the fight over your attention.  We learn it’s the dog we say sic em to.  Ephesians 6:12 tells us “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.” 

I’ll never forget the panic I felt at old Ranger Stadium after a ballgame when my young son and I got separated by the exiting crowd.  Terrible thoughts and fears flooded my mind.  Fortunately, I was able to locate and catch up to him before I had a major heart attack and stroke thrown in for good measure.  Oddly enough a friend of mine’s father got temporarily left behind by a church group at a Ranger game, but they returned to claim him.  Another guy I heard about stopped at a roadside park in his RV and took off while his wife was in the WC.  Not sure how he smoothed that one out.

We can live life in a fog or a daze and pretend that we don’t know what’s important, but give us a little or a big scare, and we can get focused pretty quickly.  After 9-11 church attendance went up pretty high for a while.  Most of us are sort of stumbling through life on our own when we know we could be doing a lot better if we were paying more attention to the world around us and the powerful unseen forces pulling us toward good or evil.

 By Dr. Juan Harrison