My father arrived yesterday. We will celebrate his 90th birthday on the 29th of this month. He wanted to come over for a visit and I offered to fly him down, but he insisted that he drive. Sigh…
We argued about it and I finally worked out a compromise where he drove to my first cousin’s home, (which took several hours), and then after a couple of day’s visit there, my cousin drove him the additional seven hours to our home at Honey Lake. (Tomorrow my cousin will be picked up by one of his friends in order to drive him back to his home in Mississippi.) After My dad’s two week visit here, we will drive him the 12 hour trek back to his home, and then fly home.
My father is frail and walks with a cane, but his mind is sharp and undiminished in any capacity. One would think that hopping on an airline for a few hours would have been preferable and made more sense to someone 90 years old with Parkinson’s, but alas he has a mind of his own and he cannot be dissuaded. He wanted to drive over and that is what happened. I was thinking that I would be more reasonable if I were to live that length of time; however I have inherited that “hard head” gene pool and can’t say with certainty that I would be much different.
On a whim I decided to Google 90 year olds and to my utter amazement I found some fascinating stories. The first is where a 90 year old man found his new 82 year old bride (yes she is a cougar) online at the site Match.com. They both were widowed and lonely and were looking for love on line. They discovered each other and found that they both like poetry and drinking scotch, started messaging each other , dated a few times and it was love at first sight. They just got married and are as happy as two clams swimming in scotch, uh-m-m-m… I mean the ocean.
That was a neat story, but nowhere nearly as amazing as a 90 year old man named Charlie Futrell who along with 400 younger contestants just completed a triathlon. He crossed the finish line in 2 hours, 18 minutes, 38 seconds during a sanctioned Central Florida Triathlon Series event at Clermont’s Waterfront Park. Futrell’s accomplishment came one month after he became what is believed to be the oldest person to finish a duathlon — a run, bike, run event — in Clermont. Futrell, who is recovering from a strained right rotator cuff, had to swim the backstroke in the triathlon because the freestyle was too painful.
My youngest son, who is still “wet behind the ears” at a paltry 34 years old, has just decided to start training for a triathlon. He has been agonizing as to whether or not he will have the stamina to complete it. He needs to read this WFTD for some inspiration eh?
Which leads me to say that it ain’t over until it’s over folks. A lady who will be 100 in October came out to Honey Lake a few weeks ago to see our church. It turns out that in memory of her deceased father, her family had donated one of its beautiful stained glass windows to the church from which I obtained them. Her daughter told me that this beautiful gentle lady sometimes questioned, (as my dad has), why the Lord has elected not to call her home.
Hmmm…
Perhaps His reason is to inspire the rest of us who are so often beset with our little aches and pains and who whine about getting so old. Maybe we should get off the poor little ol’ me whiney bandwagon and keep on – keeping on, and enjoying life until that joyous day arrives when at a time of His choosing and our purpose in this old world has been fulfilled, God calls us home where we can be with Him and bask in His glory forever. In other words don’t be in such a hurry. God has set eternity in our hearts for a purpose. We don’t have that much time down here relative to eternity, so why not enjoy what little time God has allowed?
Eccl. 3:1
There is an appointed time for everything. And there is a time for every event under heaven…
A time to give birth and a time to die;
A time to plant and a time to uproot what is planted.
A time to kill and a time to heal;
A time to tear down and a time to build up.
A time to weep and a time to laugh;
A time to mourn and a time to dance.
A time to throw stones and a time to gather stones;
A time to embrace and a time to shun embracing.
A time to search and a time to give up as lost;
A time to keep and a time to throw away.
A time to tear apart and a time to sew together;
A time to be silent and a time to speak.
A time to love and a time to hate;
A time for war and a time for peace.
What profit is there to the worker from that in which he toils? I have seen the task which God has given the sons of men with which to occupy themselves.
He has made everything appropriate in its time. He has also set eternity in their heart, yet so that man will not find out the work which God has done from the beginning even to the end.