PrintI Must Be Getting Old!
Just lately I've noticed that a growing number of middle-aged women are calling me names like "love" or "honey" or "darling" or even "sweetie"! I'm pretty sure this has nothing to do with my good looks!! Rather I suspect it has more to do with their sense of security in my presence i.e. they consider a man of my age to be 'safe'. In other words, they see me as too old to misunderstand their terms of endearment and/or to act upon any such misunderstanding.
I've been thinking a lot about the ageing process in more recent times. In the last 2-3 years I have spent more time with doctors and sundry medical people than in all the previous 60+ years of my life. I've already lived longer than both my parents.
These days I think about the issues of death and dying more than has been the case previously. Every new twinge or ache in my body is quickly noted and carefully monitored. Could this twinge be the first signs of some new disease (for which, of course, there is no cure!)? And that ache, could it be an old condition returning just when I thought it had been cured?
Actually I'm a little surprised at my attitude to death. I think I'm supposed to be looking eagerly forward to death (like the apostle Paul) so that I can be with Jesus. Well, I'm not! Maybe I need to ask the Lord to begin changing my attitude in this regard.
I recall reading about the British preacher, David Watson, when he wrote about his journey with terminal cancer. He didn't want to die and leave his wife and two boys. I know how he felt. I'm exactly the same. David wrote that he made the shift from wanting to stay in this life but being willing to go and be with Jesus TO wanting to go to be with Jesus but being willing to stay with his family.
I, too, need to make that shift. The apostle Paul seems to have made that shift when he writes:
