Time Takes Its Toll

The man shuffled in, stooped and head down cast, their eyes weary and red. He sits gingerly yet with a bit of collapse into his seat, his breathing quickened from the little jaunt from the back of the room to his seat. The music starts, and he groans to his feet, mumbling well known words, eager for the sermon, because, let's be honest, this up and down stuff wears him out. He is snoring five minutes in, and only the elbow of his adoring, frustrated and equally tired wife will wake him. One more song and he can escape, again, very slowly and not with any excitement- the optimism of his youth is dead and gone.

Did you notice the man was just in his late twenties?

Or did you picture the typical old church man? The thing is, time takes its toll on all of us. I've known a nearly hundred year old lady who was full of joy and life and eagerness. But I've known teens that were just so worn out on faith. Time doesn't have to be in years, it can drain us in days or hours just as well.

Conflict comes and its how we handle it that ages or de-ages us. Too many of us are old beyond our years- Methuselahs in the bodies of Davids. I'm probably a good twenty years older than I look because I've for years now let conflict get the better of me. I'm often weary, ready for a break, looking to just vegetate a bit.

But I don't want to write a story that plays out like the opening vignette. I want to be the old man who the kids can't keep up with. I want to know more victory than stalemate. (Lets be honest, its the stalemates that kill us, not the defeats- defeats we regroup from, stalemates where we tread water offer no rest.)

Jesus says that the weary should come to Him, and James says we should believe and not doubt. So do we really believe that if we go to Him, He take up up our burdens?