Life and Changes

This has been a busy week. There has been a lot of stuff going on. In the middle of it, I got a call from an old friend. My wife and I have known her and her husband for about twenty-eight years. They are both elderly and I usually bump into them at church, but we have several services on Sunday mornings and on Sunday and Wednesday nights as well, so when I hadn't seen either one of them for the last three months, I really hadn't given it any thought. When she called, she was looking for someone to help take her husband to a couple of doctors over the next couple of days for follow-up visits. It turns out that her husband's health, both physical and mental have been in a fast decline over the last several months, and he is slipping into dementia. To make matters worse, he had fallen and broken one of his thumbs.

I was a bit taken aback to say the least, but scrambled in my head as to how to juggle work in the middle of the day with helping her out. I managed to do that over the next two days, and it was hard to watch her go through this. He is unhappy understandably, with his situation, and wants to go home instead of staying at the retirement home he has been placed in, but he is over six feet tall and nearly two-hundred pounds. She is eighty-six and it is too much for her to take care of him.

Time seems to move so swiftly. I remember playing baseball with this man some twenty five years ago. He was something to watch, and he has always been active and able to overcome physical challenges. Life changes rapidly though, and these particular types of changes can be devastating to a person who has always been determined to face things head-on, and without doubt. He can't control this. He can't control his body, and he cannot even control his own thought life. It makes me want to cry at times, but I know that God is in control, and that this man will one day go home to be with the Lord, and that there will be a beautiful celebration as he enters into heaven to worship at the feet of his Master. For now though, his wife must depend on the strength of God to be able to bear the load of helping her husband with his day-to-day struggle just to get by.

As I mentioned in my last post, I will be turning fifty years old tomorrow. There has been a lot of kidding around as I have moved toward that day. It's just a day, I know, but the events of this past week have made me think a bit more seriously about it than I might have before. I have watched family members and friends over the years move either graciously or miserably into old age. My parents, and this couple, and many others have been real examples to me about how one should deal with the challenges that time and aging bring to a person. I am still learning, but most certainly the people I have watched who have handled it the best have been those who have clung to the Lord for strength and trusted that He could and would carry them through anything.

That is the attitude. He will, too.