Then a few days later, I went to my Dad's field and took down a plum bush and briar thicket. It took me about 4 hours. When I got back home, I was zapped! That night, I ached all over and could not go to sleep although my entire body was craving rest. Then somewhere in the wee hours of the morning a thought hit me with unusual clarity - "yes, I do feel 36 years old, and I am feeling every bit of it!" You see, not too long ago I could put in 6-8 hours of hard manual labor and then sleep like a baby! So it came time to face what I was denying or at least ignoring. Middle age is here, and it is different than being young! I don't have the energy level I used to enjoy. I used to stay up until 11pm or later every night because I was so keyed-up - now I'm wiped out around 8pm! My recovery time from a hard workout is days now instead of hours! The hairline is not receding, it is running, and the hair is retreating from my head and sprouting in my ears!

Psalm 90:10 says, "The years of our life are seventy, or even by reason of strength eighty; yet their span is but toil and trouble; they are soon gone, and we fly away."

Our lifespan is somewhere around 70 years (God willing). That means I'm not climbing the hill, I'm not cresting the hill, I'm on my way down the other side!

So what does this mean for me as a believer? Why post this as a blog? Three things come to mind.

• (1) I have an increasing determination to "make the best use of the time" I have left! (Eph 5:16) I'm on the second half of life now, and I want every day left to be spent for the glory of God! I want to lay treasure up in heaven. I want to joy in my wife and kids! I want to commune with my Father. I want to proclaim and promote the Gospel in every possible way afforded to me. I don't even want to think about the time I wasted on the front side of life! I want to learn from the psalm of Moses - "Lord, teach us to number our days so that we get a heart of wisdom." (Ps 90:12)
• (2) I want to embrace the eternal joys that await all who are in Christ with zeal, joy, satisfaction, and anticipation. I don't want to leave clinging to this fleeting world and this finite life! I want to leave, when it comes my time to leave, with a heart overflowing in jubilation at the thought of meeting my Savior face to face.
• (3) Finally, I want to kill the sins that have lurked around the corners of my heart and clung to the hallways of my mind and made havoc on my spiritual growth and maturity for 20 years! I want them dead before I meet my Savior! When I see Jesus, I want to embrace him having demonstrated in this fallen world, living in this fallen body, that I loved him above all things!

Now that my physical strength begins to slowly fade, there is the challenge now to be strengthened in my spirit. As Paul said in 2 Cor 4:16, "So we do not lose heart. Though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed day by day."

I have faced the facts. I know I'm getting older, and one day I will be old. Those things do not trouble me. My concern now is "how" I will grow older. Therefore, I pray that by the grace of God and the power of His Spirit, I may grow stronger and wiser in the knowledge of the Lord and in my affections for Christ! When I am freed from this body of sin and death, may my spirit soar in thrilling joy to find rest in the arms of Him who has been eagerly sought and thirsted after for a lifetime!