November 11, 2021 – Click here to listen
Today I go under the knife for skin cancer again. I still have stitches in my back from the last time I visited him, and they are going to remove the stitches and then cut another malignancy from my forehead today. My doctor tells me I experienced too much sun in my youth and now I’m paying for it.
I experienced too much of many things in my youth and yes, I’m paying for it. I went fishing yesterday in rough seas and today I’m hobbling around like my old 14-year-old lab Bear used to prior to his demise. He would stand up stiff as a board and gingerly and tenderly take a step or two until he got warmed up enough to walk. He would only do this to eat, drink water, or find a different place to sleep and that was his life. I prefer another route.
All those broken bones from my adventurous life have resulted in arthritis and serve as a constant reminder of those incidents. One of my worst aches was the result of being trampled by three horses. I was unbridling my horse when two other horses came over thinking it was feeding time. One of them bit my horse on the rump and he reared up and took off running right over me with the other two right behind him. I was knocked about 10 feet through the air and landed on my tailbone and then my head hit the dirt hard. I was knocked unconscious momentarily and woke up to my wife screaming at me asking if I was hurt. When the horse ran over me followed by the other two horses he planted his hoof directly in the middle of my chest, additionally my tailbone felt like it was broken, and I was nauseous from being knocked out.
“Yes, but I don’t know how bad” I weakly moaned.
Miraculously I survived that with severe bruises and another ache and pain was stored away with the rest of them to return another day and torment me. I was remarking to my fishing buddy about my arthritic condition yesterday and it would be an understatement to say he was not sympathetic. He piled on and declared me old. I smiled at him and told him that I may be old, but I wasn’t cold. We braved the big waves and filled the fish box with fish, and he was the one moaning at the end of our long day.
My friend Murf the Surf has a memorial service this weekend that my wife and I are going to attend. Murf had about ten years on me and the last time I took him fishing, the seas were rough and he griped about his aching bones and said that the next day after our fishing trip he was sore and stiff and stayed in bed and laid on the couch for two days. A friend of his gave him an old Mercedes that had seen better days and it had several hundred thousand miles on it. It still ran well (most of the time), and he used to compare his old body to it. He said the car wasn’t all that old, but it had a lot of miles on it, and he was like that car. I can relate. Today all those aches and pains and memories of how they got there are gone, and Murf is glowing and bathed in white light in the presence of Jesus.
As long as I’m on this side of the grass I intend to fight my way through the residual pain of multiple car and motorcycle crashes, vicious fights, drug overdoses, horse trampling, rattlesnake bite, sun damage, and so on and live life. As you gain years your fading eyesight, diminished hearing, slowing reflexes combined with increasing aches and pains might tend to discourage you. But my friends you can still enjoy a fun-filled life crammed with adventure and accomplishment of purpose provided you keep your mind focused on Jesus and keep living life to the fullest. And yes, you might have to fight through some pain now and then, but keep it in context, life can still be good – Very Good! Most importantly fill your mind with God things and keep serving the Lord and working toward fulfilling your purpose.
Phil. 4:8
And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable — if anything is excellent or praiseworthy — think on these things. Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me, put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you . . .