The last day of 2014 coincides with my last day of vacation. I am starting work again tomorrow albeit from “home”. We had an extremely active holiday with numerous runs, races, bicycle rides, tennis matches, swimming through lagoons and riding waves. I thank God for a body that can do all this. But I also realize that all of this is temporary. As another year ends I am reminded how transient everything is. There will be a time when the body gives out.
My mother’s knee is giving her more and more difficulty. My father is scaling back his work on engines (he will be eighty next year after all…) My own personal best times which I set 10 years ago seem forever unattainable. It takes me more time to warm up before anything now. If my wife says: “Stephan, please take out the trash,” I’ll say, “OK, just give me time to stretch out this kink in my hamstring first.” Moving the couch warrants a full warm-up session… 🙂
This body is only temporary and its glory is short-lived. But instead of making me long for the past and the strength of my youth it rather makes me look forward to a more glorious future with a much better body. Have a look at these Scriptures below.
2 Corinthians 5:1 For we know that if the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.
2Corinthians 4:16-18 So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as 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.
Isaiah 35:3-7: Strengthen the weak hands, and make firm the feeble knees. Say to those who are fearful-hearted, “Be strong, do not fear! Behold, your God will come with vengeance, with the recompense of God; He will come and save you.” Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped. Then the lame shall leap like a deer, and the tongue of the dumb sing.
So my message for 2015 to you: enjoy what you have fully, but let’s not only look at the visible, tangible, seeing-is-believing kind of things. There is a reality which creeps up on all of us. We will die sooner or later. But if we know our Father / Judge / Creator God through His Son, Jesus, we have something MUCH better to look forward to.
Keep running into the New Year
Stephan
Running with a Friend 