Friday, May 04, 2012

Weird Sixty?

I've had ten months to think about it and I've decided it's weird being sixty.  It always seemed silly in the past when others would ask, or I'd ask myself, "How does it feel to be forty?" and then it was "fifty".  No one asked you how it feels to be thirty.  I guess that's too young to feel any different than it did to be twenty.  But that's the problem.  I don't "feel" any different than I did at forty or fifty, but my brain keeps telling me I should.  Oh sure, there are plenty of times when my body reminds me - in a not so subtle way - that I'm not as young as I use to be (and by the way - when is that ever not true?).  Like the last couple of times I chased elk up the mountain in Colorado, or week before last when I used a post hole digger to put up a sign in front of the church building - though I think it was just really hard dirt (?).  Anyway, it's weird being sixty because you DO finally realize that you're not young - and maybe not even middle aged - ouch!  Still, I feel like I did decades ago - most of the time.  Until...
Last month my oldest grandson was baptized.  What a thrill!  What a blessing!  It was only yesterday that his mom announced at our dinner table that she wanted to be baptized.  That's yesterday, as in twenty-five years ago.  Really?  To see your own grand children growing old enough to want a relationship with God is, well - like nothing else.  It makes you look back through the years and thank God that, even with all our mistakes, we kept our priorities straight.  God first!  Still, I don't know which is harder to accept:  (1) that we have a GRANDSON old enough to make such an important decision, or (2) that we have a DAUGHTER who's old enough to  have a son that old?
Yes, it's weird being sixty.  I guess the weirdest part is imagining yourself looking like all those OLD PEOPLE  you've know through the years who were sixty.  Surely I don't look like any of them.  It's weird because now seventy looks so much younger than I used to see it.  Hey, I saw a seventy-eight year old guy in the Iron Man Triathlon last year.  He was in better shape than me, but then, a lot of people are - younger and older.
The truly weirdest thing about being sixty is that God has let me be around for sixty years.  That's so many days, weeks, and months to be blessed with.  I never deserved one day of it, and I will never deserve whatever is left.  Again, that's another one of the weird things about being sixty - I'm clearly closer to the end than the beginning of my life.  When you get to be around this long, you can't EVEN pretend that "there's plenty of time".  You know how I view that?  I have had so much to be thankful for - my children love the Lord and have a close walk with him, my grand children are being raised to do the same, and I have had forty years of incredible days, memories, and blessings with the best person God has ever put into my life - Donna - so how could I possibly feel robbed or cheated if it all ended today?
Now, don't think that means I'm in any hurry to "catch that boat to heaven."  On the contrary, it means I will treasure every day and do my best to make sure each day glorifies my Father in Heaven.  Since I'm only two months away from sixty one, I'm already thinking about how weird seventy is going to be.  I'm starting to think that mid-life is much longer than many people think it is.  Yes I know - weird.

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