I remember having a light-hearted discussion with a lady during my first ministry as a youth pastor in Tequesta, Florida. She was chiding me about something and I was pleading my youth and inexperience as an excuse. I remember her words. “Pretty soon, that excuse will no longer fly.”
I am in a plane right now on my way to meet my wife in Raleigh. The logistics are complicated but she was in Cincinnati helping our youngest daughter and her husband move into their new home. My little baby now owns a house. Wow.
From Raleigh, we are heading to Florida to visit my parents. Dad just turned 90. Mom got a diagnosis of stage 4 cancer. Neither are healthy. I am going to paint their house and do yardwork and pretend to be a handyman.
On Tuesday, Jenni and I will celebrate 41 years of marriage and I will finish my 14th year as pastor of Southern Hills Baptist Church. That’s 28 years in Iowa split between the Eastside and the west. That’s 2/3 of my life in wedded bliss.
In less than a month I have a birthday that tells me that pleading youth and inexperience is not an option any longer, as my friend predicted so many years ago.
Ever ridden a roller coaster? You slowly chug up the climb toward the top. Chugga, chugga, chugga. Then, you reach the top and roll over the hill and the ride begins. Suddenly you are hurtling toward the bottom and turning left and right, holding on for dear life. It feels a little that way in life and ministry. Your early years are slow. Learning the ropes of ministry- chugga. Raising your kids – chugga. Trying to keep your head above water – chugga. Then, suddenly, you hit your early to mid-30s and the ride really begins. Before you know it you are an old codger like me.
It is exciting, fun, scary, all of that. But my friends, it goes by faster than you can imagine.
Don’t waste it. Make the moments count.
(Didn’t get this posted Monday, so some of the future tense has become past tense.)
Amen brother! It’s like a roll of toilet paper. The closer you get to the end the faster it goes.
That gave me a genuine lol
He is the I Am! Bless his name
We are join to each in bearing one another burdens and so for fill the law of Christ! LOL
Yes my brother!
You have my sympathy. Although I was still working, I was blessed to be close enough to home to take an active part in the needs of my elderly parents. It’s tough being far off.
If we are blessed we all will become the parents of our parents in their later years. I am very thankful to God we were able to help my Mother and my in laws in their last years. As the young people in the 1960’s would say,, it is like the Bryds song. Turn , Turn , Turn. Maybe the Byrds were doing the first praise hymn. Anyway Dave Miller , good post. Enjoy your life journey.
Dave: On 9/11, Immanuel Baptist, Cedar Rapids will celebrate it’s 60th anniversary. My wife Cathy was church historian and I found an old picture of your family. Your dad is pastor and you are just a kid! Me, now a widower and 70 years old, I will be celebrating my 48th year beinging a Christian. Life does go by so quickly.
God bless you, Dave, as you minister to your parents. “Honor your father and your mother” applies to mature children as well as young children. My father is 98, and I ask myself periodically–Am I honoring my father appropriately?
I remember reading somewhere (I misplaced the source but I know it wasn’t me) that the command to Honor Father and Mother was much more likely to be directed to adults than to children, as there were very few ancient societies that would have tolerated 9-year-olds disobeying their parents! Rather, it was a command about respecting them in their aging years, when the “benefits” of their existence were less tangible.
He leadth me : 0 blesses thought! 0 words with heavenly Comfort fraught! What’re I do, where I be, still ’tis Gods hand that Leadeth me.
What a hope!