Blessings and Thorns Dr. Juan Harrison

I’ve noted that most of us older guys have some mental age that we think we are.  It usually goes back to our 30’s and 40’s.  Then we try to hop out of bed and Mr. Reality says taint so.  You is old.  Get over it and accept it.

Those days of reality may come with all sorts of physical and mental challenges.  Still, we fight on.  We’re on this side of the dirt.  I frequently remind my Sunday school class to look around the room and take inventory.  There’s a number of empty chairs that used to be filled by good old faithful members not so long ago.  We often find it difficult to accept that old so-and-so is no longer here.  Even harder is when younger folks suddenly leave us with big holes in our daily lives.

We can all get depressed, pull the blinds, and retire to our recliner, or we can see things through His eyes.  He wants to remind us that we cannot take anything, including life and breath itself, for granted.  He wants us to have a little more urgency, a little more appreciation for the life we have along with all its blessings and thorns.   The grass burrs and prickly pears help us appreciate the smooth green grass.

We’re told the rain falls on the just and the unjust.  We don’t have much trouble accepting a refund check from the IRS or a cash back refund card or check.  The old mean hard bumps and sometimes stretches of lean living and bad feelings are a tad bit harder to digest.  Still, we need em to genuinely appreciate the good times.

For most of us ordinary mortal folks just trying to make it through another day looking forward to hitting that good old bed once more, we spend our days putting one foot in front of the other, moving from one chore to another until the day is done.  Most days are uneventful as we come to love dull even more the older we get.  Too much excitement could cause us older folks to spring another leak.

As we put on our boxing gloves for one more round in the ring of life, we look across the canvass for our next opponent.  We try to size him up.  We’ve survived all our bouts up till now.  Other friends haven’t fared so well.  You may even question why that’s so.  Why have they gone and you’re still here.  Then it slowly dawns on you that maybe He’s got some assignment, some new opponent He wants you to wrestle with or punch out.  Our days are actually numbered.  How we use them is up to us.  Maybe it’s time once again for us to drag that tired old body out of the bed or recliner once more to do battle with some challenge He has sent our way to help fill up those sometime boring days.

By Dr. Juan Harrison