A week or two ago I went to visit my uncle who is my dad’s brother in a convalescence home. He has dementia, upon arriving to see him I expected to talk with him about the past and how he was doing presently. I wasn’t prepared for what I encountered, he did not know who I was and couldn’t carry on any type of conversation whatsoever. He is 78 years old yet he looked as if he was 98 years of age. He was confined to a wheelchair and in a lot of pain from his arthritic hip. I was shocked to see him like this. I immediately remembered the man I knew for so much of my life as being a successful business owner, who was strong and worked hard his entire life. Who also partied heavily as well. Seeing him like this reminded me of the passage of scripture in Ecclesiastes 12:1-7 “Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth, while the evil days come not, nor the years draw nigh, when thou shalt say, I have no pleasure in them; While the sun, or the light, or the moon, or the stars, be not darkened, nor the clouds return after the rain: In the day when the keepers of the house shall tremble, and the strong men shall bow themselves, and the grinders cease because they are few, and those that look out of the windows be darkened, And the doors shall be shut in the streets, when the sound of the grinding is low, and he shall rise up at the voice of the bird, and all the daughters of musick shall be brought low; Also when they shall be afraid of that which is high, and fears shall be in the way, and the almond tree shall flourish, and the grasshopper shall be a burden, and desire shall fail: because man goeth to his long home, and the mourners go about the streets: Or ever the silver cord be loosed, or the golden bowl be broken, or the pitcher be broken at the fountain, or the wheel broken at the cistern. Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it.” My uncle didn’t come to serve God until much later in his life. He like so many others wasted his years in the world. At some point we all get older, (if we live long enough) we all hope that we will age gracefully. There are times we wither away slowly. While we have the strength and clarity of our minds we must serve God to the best of our abilities. Doing what he has instructed us to do. I had lunch with my spiritual father last week. He was telling me that he doesn’t do what he once did in ministry but he still ministers the gospel. He said, “we can’t go back and recapture the past it is gone we must live in the here and now.” Those were words of wisdom. Today is the day we must be about our Father’s business, yesterday is gone we can look back and reminisce where we came from, but we can’t dwell on the good ole days. I hated seeing the man I love in that state but such is life sometimes. My task is to do what I know God is telling me to do while I still can. Today we must make history for tomorrow. Yesterday is in the past, today is the day we live in!
Samuel King, Senior Pastor
Christlike Life Church, Laveen, AZ
