Soon, God will take all of this away

I’m getting old……… I’m probably well past my “best used by” date. Recently a friend, also about my age, commented, “In a few years, all of the stuff I’ve accumulated will either belong to somebody that I don’t know…..or will be in the dump.” It’s a sobering thought………but true. I’m a firm believer in the truth, so this post is about facing that truth.

Soon……….I’m going to die.

I really don’t get too sad about dying. But, I have to admit that the thought of my woodshop being sold at auction to a bunch of guys whom I don’t know and carted off in pickup trucks saddens me. Even worse, somebody will fill MY shop up…….with THEIR junk. Instead of being neatly organized, it will probably just sit there in piles……..makes my skin crawl. They probably won’t weed my garden either.

So how do we……the baby boomers in particular, but everybody else as well, even the very young……deal with the reality……the truth……… that we are near the end of our lives?

I’m a Christian, and I pray every morning. As a part of my prayers, I include this:

Lord,

I thank you for all that you have given.
I trust you for what you have taken away.
I praise you for what I have left.

But………the truth is that soon………God will take away every earthly thing and person in my life. I can get mad at God……I can ignore him or deny him……. I can struggle against my fate. But, that won’t change a thing. My daily trip to the treadmill may buy me a few more days…….but my end is not in doubt.

Or, I can go back to my prayer. I can trust God. He has given me many promises. The first is that he loves me. The second is that he has prepared a place for me. After he takes away this present amazing place, I have to believe that a creator who loves me and has prepared a new place for me, has something nice in mind. If he takes care of me any thing like the way I take care of my children, I’m in for a treat.

The best guess that I can come up with goes like this. My day begins sitting on the porch drinking coffee and talking with people that I love……Jesus, my wife, my sons, people that I don’t know yet. I then spend time in a woodshop where I make beautiful things……where the chisels don’t get dull, the bandsaw blade never breaks, and where there is no sandpaper…….none.
Jesus stops by and gives me a few pointers. I break for lunch where I enjoy more fellowship. In the afternoon, I take a long walk with a friend. Dinner is with my mom and dad. I get a good night’s sleep with no midnight trips to the toilet and no CPAP machine. Then I start all over.

The key here is to love and trust God……..and his promises.

The alternative is dispair.

There really is no other choice.

“Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me. My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. You know the way to the place where I am going.”

Jesus, NIV

“Which of you, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!

Jesus, NIV

You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. Surely your goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever.

David, NIV