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