Responsible Tent Maintenance

I ran into a friend at the grocery store. He's always been a bit of an inspiration to me. He was a co-worker of mine back the early 1990s for about five years, and he was the one guy that I have ever worked with that ever challenged me with his work ethic. He was bigger and taller than me, with about 18" pipes, and I'm telling you, he had a lot of energy. I often had to work harder to keep up with him. Even at that he was doing construction work on his time off and he was just a real go-getter.

Now though, it seems, he has slowed down quite a bit. Nothing wrong with that. We're both 49 and in the last half-dozen years he told me that he had to start taking cholesterol medication and that he has really had to take serious steps to lower his blood pressure. He told me that he just doesn't feel that he's half the man he used to be. He has always fought with his weight like I have, and I totally sympathize with what he is going through. Those things have affected my mother, as well as other family members.

One interesting thing that came out in our conversation was that he said that acceptable cholesterol rates keep dropping. I asked why he thought that was. He said that he honestly believed in his heart that it is because the big drug companies make monstrous profits on blood-pressure medication, and that the lower that acceptable levels drop, the more money they make. Insidious if true. I hope not. In any case, cholesterol meds themselves can be a threat to one's health. He allowed that he has to have his blood routinely checked while on this medication to make sure that his liver is not being affected by taking it.

I have been blessed with the blood-pressure of a teenager, at 120/80. My "at rest" pulse rate is around 60 and sometimes lower. My triglyceride levels have always been good and I have good cholesterol levels (since I upped the protein in my diet and drastically lowered my sugar intake.) What does all of that mean? I don't know. I could croak with a heart attack tonight. It may be a vanity on my part, or it may just be a concern for my ability to keep earning income to be able to take care of my wife and myself, but I got a wee bit surprised by the fact that my friend told me that he's really had to learn to drop back, in order to pace himself to his new energy levels.

Ultimately all of that is a gift from God. There are far more godly and mature Christian men than I, who have not enjoyed very robust health. My health is fairly normal, and I actually have more endurance now than I did when I was younger, and I am very grateful to God for those things. I also believe that I have a responsibility to my Lord to take care of this "tent," this body that He has given to me. As I have gotten older though, I have reached an in-between state. I still feel really great, and at the same time, it seems funny to me that I am at all concerned about that fact.

It's not exactly as though I'm unaware that I'm aging. My brother is ten years older than I am, and he started to watch his blood-pressure rise, and I remarked to him once that I feel better physically now than I did at 25. His response to me was, "Guess what? You're not." Thanks for the tip. (laughing here) I feel for my friend, because he really was the guy that I saw as the human dynamo, and it has to be hard for him to deal with the fact that he can't perform the way he always has. As for me, I try to be grateful that I still can, and pray that it will continue.