2008 hasn't started very healthy for me. Over the holidays, I had a bad head & chest cold for several days. I ate too much and have been trying to diet some and get back in shape, not very successfully. And now, over the past 2 weeks, I've developed some kind of intestinal infection, leaving me feeling lousy most days. On top of all that, for months I've been struggling with a pinched nerve between my shoulder blades, giving me a fair amount of neck & shoulder pain daily. Not a great start to a new year!
It definitely seems like the older I become, the easier it is to get sick or get injuries, yet its harder to get and stay in shape and harder to eat healthy enough to feel good. Entering middle age is a pain- literally & figuratively!
I've been reading a book about the life and writings of the late Rich Mullins, whom I've written about before here. My all-time favorite musician, no doubt. In the final chapter of the book, the author shares many of Rich's thoughts on aging, death, and the life to come for followers of Christ. I was encouraged by a few lines from one of his old songs-

Live like you'll die tomorrow
Die knowing you'll live forever
Love like you'll leave tomorrow
Believing love lasts forever.

He also spoke these words-
"Remember that after we die...Christ is going to raise us up again, and somehow we'll be a body still. But we'll be different than we are now. A new body's what we get- and I've got a great one on order!"
"A little while after you're dead, you'll be rotted away anyway...Its not gonna matter if you had a few scars. It will matter if you didn't live."
I'm reminded of what Saint Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 15:53- "This perishable body must put on imperishability, and this mortal body must put on immortality."

So as tough as it is to get older, I have the confidence that when this body wears out, a new, improved model awaits me, with an eternal warranty. And that is when life will really begin...
Rob