Guest Post: LOOKING AHEAD

                                                

I'm excited to bring you a guest post today by a man passionate in serving Christ, Floyd.  

Floyd captured my attention by his outspoken honesty and desire to share Jesus. If you have never visited his site, I encourage you to do so. You can go to his site, theregoi, here. You can also find him on Facebook here.

    

When Floyd  gave me this post, he was concerned it might be too controversial, but I find it vitally important as so many today are desperately searching for the fountain of youth . So without further delay:

LOOKING AHEAD

They say timing is everything, that sure seemed to be the case that day… I had just left the doctor’s office, having finished the first part of my physical. The chest x-rays, EKG, blood draw, and the other basic required tests.

With an hour to kill before returning to the second part of the uncomfortable (understatement)! physical process, I went to the closest restaurant about a half mile west of the doctor’s office.

As I sat desperately in need of food after fasting for the first part of the physical, they began to shuffle in…and I do mean shuffle. The ones who could shuffle were the fortunate ones. The less fortunate ones were hunched over walkers and a few of them were in wheelchairs.

The large group was from a nearby senior care facility, out for their weekly group breakfast. There were two nurses or caregivers helping the seniors get seated and order their breakfasts. I noticed the group was predominately women, I guess the statistics don’t lie…

I thought it ironic to be in between tests for a physical recommended by my doctor due to age and time since the last one and run into a group of senior citizens. The point of my unpleasant doctor visit was to make sure I didn’t have any glaring health issues that might keep me from reaching senior citizen status.

The aging process is inevitable. The only constant is air and dirt… We’re all passing through and the time we get to spend here seems to be much less than we first thought.

I enjoyed my breakfast, being that hungry might have had something to do with it. I know for sure I enjoyed mine more than the group of seniors sitting a few feet away from me did.

The group overall seemed to be somber. The nurse or caregiver worked diligently trying to carry and push conversations; the group didn’t seem much interested in her or her stories and questions.

I’m no expert on senior care, but it didn’t seem like the patrons of the senior home were satisfied customers. I don’t think I’d be either… There was a time that the group of seniors could come and go as they pleased. They could pick their own friends, pick their own restaurant.

Those days are long gone and it showed in the older folks faces… That’s what we have to look forward to? That’s the reason I go to the doctor? To make sure I live long enough  to end up feeble and get treated like a little kid?

Hmmm. Maybe our society should be more concerned with the afterlife while we’re here? It’s no secret that we, like the flowers have a season, the bloom is beautiful, but the season passes so fast… Then we get to bide time waiting to die? No thanks… I think I’d rather live with the joy of the Lord in my heart that can’t be contained on the inside. It slips out through the cracks in my smile or laughter.

Maybe it was just bad timing… or maybe good timing. What are your thoughts on this controversial subject?

If I would have known the procedures for the rest of the physical…

I’d have never gone back…