Monday, April 30, 2018

CONSIDER ASPECTS OF AGING

There seems to be a Walgreen's at every corner. You know, the corner of "happy and healthy. "
So....why is it the queue at the Walgreen's checkout seems to have many unsmiling folks with walkers, canes and sad eyes and an assistant who holds their arm! Many of these seniors, "keenagers" as FUMC in Hoptown calls them, seem to frequent the corner of sad/lonely & unhealthy, because of the life curves aging sends their way.

They get their red noses and red eyes from some of life's struggles, not from frequenting Walgreen's. (Although I do like Walgreen's premise of "Red Nose" Day to feed the hungry!)


Ministering to widows has given me a front row seat to aging. Unhealthy seems to show no partiality---not gender, not race, not religion and sometimes not even age. But when aging is one of the components of the affliction, one can use extra measures of grace---God's grace that is!

Many must make hard choices and changes in their latter years. So the key seems to be attitudinal.
God does not forsake us as we age and some of them cling to that truth!
Even when I'm old and gray (or glow in the dark white, DAL) as Psalm 73:23-24 reminds us.
Aging does bring many changes---some physical, some mental and many emotional, BUT GOD is in control and can aid us as we accept and then adapt. I know because I've seen it up close and personal in the lives of many of "my" widow friends.
My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. (Psalm 73:26)
Their lives have brought scriptural truth alive for me as I consider their lives.