I am getting old, worn out and breaking down...

It was at a conference in the Philippines when I started to notice it happening. I was attending a missionary conference for missionaries with New Tribes Mission. I was 33 years old. All the men and some very courageous women decided one afternoon to play a pick up game of touch football, (touch is a very loose word since it was the hardest touches I ever felt).

I was running out for a pass and it landed in my arms, the perfect spiral landing into my arms like a cradled infant in the arms of his daddy. In those days I was a lot more fit then I am now. I could run without getting winded and actually jogged regularly. All of a sudden...BOOM, a young lady gave me one of those "touches" that sent me sailing tumbling rolling over and over till my left knee twisted under me and flinched with pain, (actually those present would say I screamed like a little girl). I never got over that injury and till this day it hurts me whenever I overdue it.

Fast forward to age 45. Never wore glasses until then and only then did I buy those cheap reading glasses from the drug store to see small print...today 8 years later strong tri-focals and cannot get along without them.

I have this pain in my heel called plantar fasciitis...it is the onset of what is called a heel spur. Though it can effect anyone at any age it is predominantly an old persons problem.

Lastly a couple of years ago I was diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes after a lifetime of over indulgence of chocolate, soft drinks, heavy carbohydrates, and other misc. sugars...with limited and no exercise, (after all I did have a knee injury right...NOT an excuse...).

I am breaking down and cannot find the warranty on this body. Things do not work like they used to. I can't do the things I did when I was young..younger....

Funny thing is I feel young and vibrant, alive but as one of my favorite movie quotes go: "My mind is writing checks my body can't cash!" I love gym night at the Life Center and love to play hoops with the young people but I end up sore, winded and limping away after only a short time, (it is embarrassing to have a young 14 year old girl help you to the bench...)

So where is all this whining going? We age and begin to feel our age. We lose track of time on our lives, our bodies, our health. Eventually we start to think old too. We start talking like our parents did about the youth and "the good old days..." I love the quote from Dr. Seuss that says: "“How did it get so late so soon? Its night before its afternoon. December is here before its June. My goodness how the time has flewn. How did it get so late so soon?” Mark Twain said: "Youth is wasted on the young"

Robin Williams in Dead Poets says: "Seize the day". And yet another movie quote from The Field of Dreams: "We just don't recognize the most significant moments of our lives while they're happening. We think, 'There'll be other days'. What we do not realise is that's the only day.."

That is what it means in two passages from the Bible when it says in Ecclesiastes, "Remember your Creator in the days of your youth.." And in Ephesians when Paul says "Redeem the time..." Taking each moment as special, (even the broken down body days). Investing in the time for God, others and ourselves...

Hey, I can walk, have good health, (for a man my age). It is never too late to seize the day, the opportunity, that moment God wants for us and to be used by Him for His glory. Look at every moment as a time not too waste but invest...Love God Passionately and Serve others with sacrificial service!