“But you don’t have a clue what tomorrow may bring. For your fleeting life is but a warm breath of air that is visible in the cold only for a moment and then vanishes! (James 4:14)”
We’ve had a tough year so far in our family.
My mother-in-law, who was on Hospice but seemed to be making a comeback and planned on not only going OFF Hospice but getting her own apartment by the end of the year, suddenly passed away from complications of COPD the day before Valentine’s Day.
Then there was the murder of my wife’s cousin, Tony. Aunt Marsha has lost so many people close to her the last few years, including her husband and grandson, and this was yet another crushing blow.
Two different people in my immediate family have had a drug relapse. Marriages and small children all involved, all suffering.
Yeah, the Devil is upping his game, and people are dying, my friends.
People are under attack.
Darkness seems to be closing in all around us. I talked to a couple people at church yesterday who confirmed the same types of events are happening in their family.
While it is time to go as deeply as we can in our faith, and trust in God even more than we ever have before, this is not what today’s blog is about.
As the subject line indicates, I realize more and more as I get older how fleeting life can be, so I try and play just as hard as I work.
This picture is of my son, Trey (front row left), and me (front row right), when we rode the Hollywood Rip Ride Rocket at Universal Studios Orlando a couple months ago on vacation.
If you’ve never had the “pleasure” of riding this metal terror, it starts out by going STRAIGHT UP IN THE AIR, and then goes over a short hump and SHOOTS STRAIGHT DOWN. After that is a terrible series of twists, turns and flips. Check out how red my face was; I honestly thought I was gonna pass out!
As I’ve previously mentioned, I didn’t ride a roller coaster for the first 16 years of my son’s life. I used to say, “God’s little joke is that, when raising my daughter (Jessica, who is 11 years older than Trey), I could’ve rode the coasters, but she didn’t like them, so I didn’t ride. Then I had a son who loves them, but my back had gotten so bad I COULDN’T ride them.”
But I don’t think God was being cruel, I think He was waiting on me to stop limiting myself, which I did a couple years ago when I decided I was going to start riding them again.
Trey LOVES that I ride these 90-second horror shows with him, and that makes it all worth it.
We can let ourselves get buried in the stress of the day…
Anger…
Depression…
Anxiety…
Worry…
Fear…
Or we can realize that things normally sort themselves out, and just try and enjoy the day.
You have your circle of friends and family, and you honestly don’t know how long you all will be together, so get out this weekend and enjoy each other’s company.
Yeah, that’s one thing I’ve learned in 35 years of chronic pain.
It’s a simple thing, but hopefully made you smile, my friend.
Blessings.
Broken People 
Blessings to you too, friend.
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