Father Time Takes His Toll!

                           
Jay Leno sends a humorous reminder that time is taking its toll. He said, "With high definition TV, everything looks bigger and wider. Kind of like going to your 25^th high school reunion" (RD, 9/04, p 70). Time changes us. As someone said, "What Mother Nature giveth, Father Time taketh away." The wit of Will Rogers lives on in countless quotes. He once observed, "Some people try to turn back their odometers. Not me; I want people to know ‘why’ I look this way. I’ve traveled a long way, and some of the roads weren’t paved." Many people assiduously seek to lessen the toll the passing of time takes on the body. But no matter how young or old you are, the Bible says "our outward man is perishing" (2 Corinthians 4:16a). Whether you are a toddler, a teen, a thirty-something, or three times thirty, one thing stands true – "All flesh is as grass, and the glory of man as the flower of the grass. The grass withers, And its flower falls away, But the word of the Lord endures forever" (1 Peter 1:24-25). Country singer Clint Black cobbled together beautiful but haunting and sobering words about the temporary nature of our journey through life in his 1993 song "No Time To Kill" – "There’s no time to kill between the cradle and the grave. Father Time still take a toll on every minute that you save . . ." Save all the time you can. Get the highest speed computer and internet and wifi service currently available. Buy only microwaveable meals, or pick up your food in the drive through lane at the fast-food restaurant. Do your banking online and shop at amazon.com. Drive in the fast lane on the way to work, or leave early and avoid the traffic. Eat well and take all your vitamins. Brush your teeth after every meal, floss daily, and see your dental hygienist biannually. Watch the cholesterol, don’t smoke, filter your water or drink only Dasani or Fuji Artesian or Perrier. Control your blood pressure and get regular exams. Get a Peloton Indoor Stationery Bike or go to the gym five days a week. Jog, hike, bike, swim, count calories, don’t eat much ice cream, get eight hours of sleep every night. And while you’re at it, rub on all the lotions, potions, cremes, and oils you can. Get your skin treated. Color your hair and augment whatever body parts you think are sagging or dragging or making you look older. Believe me now, I’m not making fun of these things (at least not all of them). I use a lotion or two myself. But do all that – and still Father Time eventually takes his toll.

And yet there is hope. Let us re-visit the passage quoted above from 2 Corinthians 4:16, quoting the entire verse: ^"Therefore we do not lose heart. Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day." Father Time takes a toll on our bodies, but he can’t harm our souls if we live by faith and do God’s will! There is a place "where the soul never dies," a place where, if we have been faithful and true, God will "make all things new" (Revelation 21:5). In 2018 time will continue to take its toll – so make it your goal to do God’s will and renew your soul! Think about it!

  By: Dan Gulley, Smithville, TN

The Kind of Love the World Needs More Of!

      Few people have not been exposed to the words of Jesus found in John 3:16 – ^"For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life." The manger where Christ was born and cross here He died both stand as tangible proof God loves us. Scripture, human experience, and social science research all testify to an innate human need to be loved. In 1965 Jackie DeShannon sang, "What the world needs now is love, sweet love. It’s the only thing that there’s just too little of . . . not just for some but for everyone." It’s a beautiful song, and nobody paying attention to the things going on in our homes and schools and communities can deny the world needs more love. But we must be careful how we define the love the world needs more of. For the raw, naked, unvarnished truth is millions of people mistake lust for love, and it is beyond that debate a lot of lust is loose in the world. 

Trace Adkins told how many people feel and act about love back in 1997 when he said in a country song with catchy-lines, "This ain’t no thinkin’ thing, right brain, left brain, It goes a little deeper than that. It’s a chemical, physical, emotional devotion, passion that we can’t hold back . . . Gray matter don’t much matter, darlin’, when it’s getting down to you and me." It’s pretty clear a lot of people are being guided by something besides their brains when it comes to love. As someone said, "Brains are what a man looks for in a wife after not using any in selecting one" (or vice-versa, of course). The recent flood of sexual harassment allegations against some very powerful and prominent people in our culture reveal what happens when people practice lust, not love. Meanwhile the Bible goes on telling us we should "love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind" (Matthew 22:37). And, "love does no harm to a neighbor" (Romans 13:10). These words come on the heels of quotations from Exodus 20 and Deuteronomy 5 that the commands to not commit adultery, not murder, not steal, not bear false witness, and not covet are all "summed up in this saying, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself’ " (quoting Leviticus 19:18). So it is – the world needed more love long before DeShannon sang about it in 1965!

The world indeed needs more love. Real love. Love that includes affection and deep feeling – but is not limited to mere feelings and emotions. Love that is defined by what it wants to give, not driven by what it can get. Love that feels, but is then acted out – not selfishly, but selflessly. Love that stays for better or for worse, in sickness and in health, in poverty and in wealth. Love that acts in behalf of the one/ones loved. Love that is willing, if need be, to "suffer long" (1 Corinthians 13:4a). Love like the kind we read about in Romans 8:32 – "He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?" Eight year-old Rebecca teaches us about love. When asked to define love, she replied, "When my grandmother got arthritis, she couldn’t bend over and paint her toenails anymore. So my grandfather does it for her, even when his hands got arthritis, too. That’s love." Yes, Rebecca, it is. That’s the kind of love the world needs more of. Think about it. 

        By: Dan Gulley, Smithville, TN