Trying to race around getting ready for our celebration with the kids and Grandkids, Bob’s medical appointments, etc. I decided to skip my afternoon siesta today. Wow! I really paid for that decision!

While shopping I had a little difficulty once I got out of the car. My body did not want to stand up straight. Aging seems to have caught up with me. There has been a nasty bulging disc for a number of years. No idea if that is the trouble or not.

So I finished at one store. Went to the next one and same scenario. Could not stand up straight without pain. When I got home carried in half the groceries and began to put them away. Still needed to do two more things out of the house.

“Hearken to me, O house of Jacob, all the remnant of the house of Israel, who have been borne by me from your birth, carried from the womb; even to your old age I am He, and to gray hairs I will carry you. I have made, and I will bear; I will carry and will save.”

-Isaiah 46:3-4 RSV

Determined to get those final two off my list, I went out again. When I got home an hour or two later I knew that if I sat down I would not be able to get dinner on the table. So I trudged on. When I did sit down for dinner, oh boy! After we ate, I could barely walk for pain and stiffness.

As I write I am sitting with the heating pad. I am praying that rest will cure this. Obviously I cannot push like I used to without consequences. Aging is NOT for sillies. This is hard stuff.

I wanted to be graceful with my turn at aging. However, most of the time I seem to take each stage kicking and screaming. No one wants to accept the fact that their body is crumbling.

So we do not lose heart. Though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed every day. For this slight momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, because we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen; for the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.
– 2 Corinthians 4:16-18 RSV

Yes, I was doing more things than I should have chosen for one day. The Lord walks with me and sustains me, forgiving me when I push myself too hard for too long. I am however responsible for hard I push myself. That bad choice has lingered with pain for days and days. Still trying to get it under control.

I heard a podcast recently and the speaker said, “Every person I work with is dying. Only a few are aware of it.” Yes, we are all dying whether we are aware of the fact or not. When my body reacts to my lack of respect for the need to rest, for the limited strength I now possess, I must be aware that we are all dying, even me. Perhaps this will help me go more gracefully into my final years? Time will tell if I take the lesson to heart.