Get Ready

Well, while you were sleeping I had another birthday.  I don’t look forward to them as much as I once did. I remember the anticipation leading up to my 16th birthday! I already had a car, a 1966 Ford Fairlane I bought from my cousin for $400. Turning 16 meant I could drive it alone! Man, such sweet freedom!

            It’s been 50 years since that momentous event. Like I said, I’m not as excited about birthdays as I once was, but I’m not ashamed of the number. I’ve earned every gray hair in my head. Some were caused by two rambunctious sons.  Dare I say some were caused by church members in various places. And I have to admit that some were caused by my own foolish decisions. 

            I’ll share this with you.  I am one year from the age when my mom passed away. That is a sobering thought.  I feel good. I’m still quite healthy. The folks in Cooper’s Point see me out on my bike three or four times a week, I walk the golf course at least once, and I walk a three-mile stretch the other days. I am trying to maintain my health. I would love to live many more years and enjoy watching my three beautiful granddaughters grow up.

            But just like you, I have no idea as to the time I have left on this earth. The Bible says, “Man knows not his time.”  It also says, “It is appointed unto man once to die, and after this, the judgment.”  The truth is that the death rate for living is 100%, and it is a bridge that we will all cross one day.

            The point of this life is to get ready.  God has made Himself known to us through the Bible and through His Son. He calls us to turn to Him by faith, and then to follow Him. And He has promised us a reward in a place called heaven. 

            I want to say one day with Paul, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.”  In other words, I want to finish well, and I pray the same thing for you. I pray God will grant us the grace to follow Him wherever He leads, and that we will be faithful to Him in all we do.