May 3, 2021 – Click here to listen
It is rare for me to be in a bad mood, but the last couple of days I’ve been like an old angry bear – It has been hard to be around me. My lower back hurts, my hearing is all but gone, but worst of all is losing my eyesight. I’ve resumed wearing my hearing aids which helps to prevent me from being stone deaf but nothing can be done about my fading eyesight and macular degeneration. Take it from me it is terrible to lose one’s eyesight and is as frustrating a situation as I’ve ever encountered.
Coincidentally our dog Cooper is almost completely blind and he is deafer than I am. If I call him, he trots through the house looking for me even though he is five feet away. He walks gingerly and his old back prevents him from running around and/or jumping up on the couch anymore. When he seeks a higher elevation in which to sleep, he simply looks at us with a pleading look and gives us his most pitiful look and we lift him up and he plops down and promptly goes to sleep. Then when he is ready to find another place to sleep, he lets us know in a similar fashion and we lift him back down.
In spite of his fading condition he never appears to be in a bad mood. He wags his tail to greet us and it is obvious that he genuinely loves us as much as we love him. I wonder what goes through his mind. He cannot reason like us according to scientists, but he definitely is not devoid of love. His pleasures are simple. He likes to lay with the sun beaming down on him and then yawn and move to a cooler spot. He always has food and water and someone to love on him and pet him and give him treats. I think he enjoys his life and doesn’t long for anything better because he doesn’t know anything better. He seems content with his lot in life.
I want to be more like old Cooper and just enjoy whatever life God wants me to have while I can. But I have a higher intellect than old Cooper and I think too much. I need to focus on my love for God and knowing that one day I’ll get a new body and be able to see for miles and hear the beautiful sounds of birds chirping again. Until then I just hope to be thankful for what I have left and not waste time grieving something I’ve lost.
I talked to a good friend whom I’ve known for many years and his wife is enduring a very serious war with cancer. She has one more experimental trial to try and if it doesn’t work, her doctors predict that she will pass away within just a few months. She is so nice and sweet and my buddy is almost inconsolable and trying to understand the “why?” question. I told him yesterday that we cannot know the mind of God, but we can know He loves us. Certain things have to happen and even His Son Jesus had to suffer as no one has ever suffered. We sometimes take it lightly but sin is so serious to God that it has affected all of creation. The best we can do is seek Jesus and look for our hope through Him throughout eternity.
I told my friend to direct his anger and frustration at the real culprit who is Satan and the sin that accompanies him. One day things will be set right and we must keep the faith. Perhaps we will understand the why questions or maybe not. I don’t think it will matter because either way, we will have finally attained the perfection that God desires for us whereby we can abide in His holy presence forever.
I don’t have a tail but if I did it would be wagging in anticipation.
1 John 1:9
If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.