What is happening? I can’t run like I used to! I can’t jump anymore and I can hardly get up from the floor.

Then I look in the mirror. What a shock. I’m getting old. I don’t feel old until I begin complaining about my aches and pains. Is it mind over matter?

I remember that day I realized that the 20’s were in my rearview mirror and I was 30 and “getting old.” My favorite story on this subject is when our niece Kim arrived at her 30th birthday with the same realization I’d had.

Kim looked at my 88-year-old Dad and asked, “PopPop, I still feel like I’m 18 uphourglass, sand, watch here,” pointing to her head. “When does that stop?” My Dad, deep in thought, looked at Kim for a long time and finally said, “I’ll let you know when it happens!”

Imagine that! An 88-year-old man still thought of himself as an 18-year-old.

I have reflected on that conversation over the years. It has challenged me to continue to try and be involved with people younger than I am, to be aware of current events of our day, and in the worlds of Clint Eastwood, “not let the old man in.”

It is a daily (hourly?) challenge, isn’t it? A discipline to not focus on what we can no longer do but what is still ahead of us.

Psa. 90:12 So teach us to number our days, That we may gain a heart of wisdom.

Psa. 71:18 Now also when I am old and gray-headed, O God, do not forsake me, Until I declare Your strength to this generation, Your power to everyone who is to come.

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