This Is the Life

By Beth DeSeelhorst

In an episode of the tv sitcom “Mom”, Marjorie has become irritable and depressed. When close friends call her on it, she gives it up: “Even an old-timer like me can forget that you can’t do this program by yourself”.

Marjorie’s program is AA. My program is Aging.

Aging can suck the meaning of life out of us. Old porous bones and curdled muscles rule the day. And sometimes nights, when joints ache more than our hearts ever did in young passions.

We are vibrant no more. We hit the sack early, rise early, fill our breakfast bowl with bran flakes, lactose-free milk, and a tiny pack of sweetener. And pray for intact bodily functions until God takes us home where there are no steps, real sugar, and no clock.

Have we used up all of our God-stuff during the years we were most able to serve?

Time’s a-wastin’, aging’s here. How can we serve God as we wheeze up and down the steps to our homes? As we keel headfirst from the weights of our grandchildren (and greats, and great-greats), trying to lift them up into our arms? But God is somewhere in all this sudden crumbling of oomph.

We can pray. Pray like we’ve never prayed before. Watch a little league baseball game, see the little rugrats … er, wunderkinds play. Pray they eventually become part of the Great Commission on our behalf. Climb a tree, or if our body can’t, ask a little rugrat … er, wunderkind, to climb it for us. Pray they climb as high as Zacchaeus did.

God will take us home when He’s good and ready. Any exhilaration, or pleasure, or fear, or sorrow we’ve ever experienced in our past is nothing compared to what we do and experience in Old Age. Have you ever seen anything like it, this E-Ticket ride? As Marjorie learned, we don’t have to do this alone. Senility does have a corner on E-Ticket rides; we need to take advantage of that by riding them together.