I read this recently in ‘Our Daily Bread’ on 2 Cor 4:16-5:5. I will not repeat what the author, Arthur Jackson, has so brilliantly written but as a mature person I can feel like a ‘tired tent’. I was so happy to learn that I had not fractured any bones in a fall that took nearly two months to recover from. I mean recover to say that I now can walk like I used to and no longer feel the impact of the fall. Today my focus is now on another part of my body with a probable pinched nerve I have been ignoring because I was so focused on the fall. Isn’t there always something to complain about? But I am complaining about a failed system that will keep failing until it no longer works. I do like the visual of a pick-pocket because we long to have the energy we once had.
I sat in the sun yesterday with grandkids filling water balloons, running, and throwing said water balloons. There was laughter and the occasional cry when someone hit the mark and the wet person’s balloon burst in their hand before it could be thrown. I’m thankful that my daughter said that grandma (me) does not like getting wet but, of course, I did – just by tying balloons unsuccessfully. It was non-stop high energy joy. It is that energy that tired people miss and marketers attempt to bottle a cream to give the allusion that youth can be captured. Thinking back, I sat most of the time they ran around like crazy people. Verse 16 – “Therefore we do not lose heart. Even though our outward man (or woman) is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day”. So there you have it. Renew your inward person daily. Refresh by looking to the giver of life – our Creator and sustainer. That includes giving and loving and using up the gifts God has given us for this season until time picks the last gem from my pocket. May I have spent it well!
Don’t waste your time in anger, regrets, worries, and grudges. Life is too short to be unhappy…More smiling, less worrying. More compassion, less judgment. More blessed, less stressed. More love, less hate. – Rot T. Bennett
Here is the bottom line: do not worry about your life. Don’t worry about what you will eat or what you will drink. Don’t worry about how you clothe your body. Living is about more than merely eating, and the body is about more than dressing up. Look at the birds in the sky. They do not store food for winter. They don’t plant gardens. They do not sow or reap—and yet, they are always fed because your heavenly Father feeds them. And you are even more precious to Him than a beautiful bird. If He looks after them, of course He will look after you. Worrying does not do any good; who here can claim to add even an hour to his life by worrying? – Matthew 6:25-27, The Voice
I also want to dispel the idea that when we lack energy as mature people we have gained wisdom. No. Wisdom is the collection of experiences that we have along the way. They don’t make us any wiser if we have not learned from them. The little balloon throwers today are wise to enjoy every moment in the sun with friends and family. We can learn from each other.