I was asked a fun question!
It is one I have had to ask of near strangers because I did not have a dad to ask.
I am a little different, for sure, based on the stories I’ve been told. I must and will attribute that difference to moments like this, where I’ve awakened to the awareness of God’s presence in my room, to the awareness of my spirit while still here, in my flesh, to this temporal shell and of my eternal being.
I cannot help but give the glory to our God. I have been spared so much of what I have heard comes with our 40s to 60s. I am now in my own 60s.
I think, I very speculate that having my last two boys later in life has blessed my thinking (they keep one healthy while attempting to keep up) but am certain, too, God has done something… …additionally… …for His own reason.
I have friends my age, believers at different levels of their walks that have experienced challenges I have not. Though I am certain they will come at some point, they have not.
I attribute some of that to the quote, “I have done what others wouldn’t so that I may continue to do what others no longer can.”
The Word has been true and faithful where no others have. We, you and I, and others, have simply ‘picked up where we left off’ in our conversations because of a sense of the eternal. I am certain of it. Each time we speak, it is as if we only continue where we left off over coffee this morning.
We are eternals, then, are we not? A moment, a month, a year, and a decade, are only coffee laced earthy vapors mingling with the poignant leather binding of my journal.
“Just as we were made like the man of earth, so we will also be made like the man of heaven. I tell you this, brothers and sisters: Flesh and blood cannot have a part in the kingdom of God. Something that will ruin cannot have a part in something that never ruins. But look! I tell you this secret: We will not all sleep in death, but we will all be changed. It will take only a second–as quickly as an eye blinks–when the last trumpet sounds. The trumpet will sound, and those who have died will be raised to live forever, and we will all be changed. This body that can be destroyed must clothe itself with something that can never be destroyed. And this body that dies must clothe itself with something that can never die. So this body that can be destroyed will clothe itself with that which can never be destroyed, and this body that dies will clothe itself with that which can never die. When this happens, this Scripture will be made true:
“Death is destroyed forever in victory.” – Isaiah 25:8
“Death, where is your victory? Death, where is your pain?” – Hosea 13:14
Death’s power to hurt is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But we thank God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
So my dear brothers and sisters, stand strong.
Do not let anything move you.
Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your work in the Lord is never wasted.” – 1 Corinthians 15:49-58
Herein lies the answer to the question, then. I have learned to give myself fully, to the very emptying of my cup, to the work of the Lord.
There is this unique nearly euphoric and enveloping sense of fulfillment that seems to whisper somehow deeper in participating in that which “is never wasted.”
