One Foot in the Grave

A little over a year ago my wife slipped on a flight of stairs and broke all three bones in her right ankle.  With surgery, a hand full of screws, and metal plate to hold everything in place, the bones were able to mend and fuse together.

It was a long recovery with physical therapy and a lot of prayer.  I thank God she is doing much better now.  There was a point she feared that she wouldn’t walk again, it was that bad.

Have you ever been walking, minding your own business, or running and enjoying your daily workout routine, and without warning you found yourself on the ground, because you slipped on something that shouldn’t have been in your pathway?

A buildup of moss across a sidewalk because of an ongoing water leak can be quite dangerous.  A banana peel that someone tossed aside can prove just as troublesome if a visually impaired individual steps on it.  Ice buildup on walkways can upset a person’s day if they slip and fall.

Talk about slipping and sliding…some of my friends from high school have slipped through the years sliding down the slippery slope of hard knocks.  A few of them have bad health, because of an undisciplined lifestyle.

My wife and I attended my 25^th high school class reunion years ago.  I lost contact with most of the people after graduation and thought it would be the perfect time to rekindle friendships.

There was plenty of food and an abundant supply of alcohol that several of my friends took advantage of.  They were no strangers to the concoctions they guzzled down.

When the gathering ended, I left wishing that I hadn’t attended.  I should have left the memory of their faces on the pages of my Senior Yearbook that sits on a shelf at home.

When we walked through the door of the venue it broke my heart to see some of my closest friends that looked like they were still burning the candle at both ends like they did in high school; a metaphor relating to the tiredness I saw on their visage. 

Some appeared unhealthy and gaunt.  They looked bad, as if one foot was on a banana peel and the other foot in the grave.  With my heart aching, I made my rounds saying hello and talking about old times.  After a closing thank you from the host, everyone said their goodbyes and went their separate ways. 

I drove home discouraged, feeling old, and out of sorts.  I asked my wife if I looked as old as those I introduced her to.  Being the lovely lady that she is, tried to encourage me when she exclaimed with an elevated voice, “You look so much younger, there’s no comparison!”  No-one really sees themselves as others see them until looking at a recently taken photograph, and then the reality of aging hits home. 

Twenty years prior to going to the reunion, I had given up the night life, drinking, and living like the devil, because I accepted Jesus as my personal Savior five years after graduating high school.  At twenty-three years of age, I cut all ties with the influential people that I associated with and backed away from all the vises that were affecting my physical body in negative ways.

I felt blessed when God redirected my steps and set my feet on the solid, unmovable rock—Jesus Christ.  All things became new and old desires passed away, because of the transformation I experienced when my soul was filled with joy and everlasting peace.  I was now on the straight and narrow path that led to heaven.  By giving my life to Jesus, my decaying soul became alive.

Attending the reunion was a sad, eye-opening experience.  I saw, firsthand, the effects of sin and how it aged my friends in more ways than one.  I couldn’t help but compare myself to them.

It wasn’t that I thought I was better than they were, it was an awakening, an introduction to what might have been had I not changed life’s direction.  Instantly, I concluded by just looking at them, were it not for the grace of God, there go I.

Silently, I was thanking the good Lord for the life changing experience He gave me, and I was grateful that I made the transition to Christianity when I was at a young age.  But know this, it’s never too late to make a change.  God is calling your name if you are not a born-again Believer.  He loves you and desires that you become His child.

Sadly, my friends did not choose that lifestyle, and it showed.  Living life as a Believer encourages good health and physical fitness.  As the song goes: “I don’t regret a mile I’ve traveled for the Lord.”

When I was heading down the wide road to hell, it was covered with the slime of sin.  For a time, I too was on the slippery slope that my friends were sliding down, living with bad habits and making unwise decisions.  It was unclear from one day to the next if I would slip bad enough to lose total control and skid off the road into the abyss of death without having my sins forgiven by God. 

It would be like slipping on a banana peel and feeling the pain of falling, because of blind disobedience.  Eternity in hell may be just a slip away.  Without God’s mercy and grace to intervene we would all be lost.  No-one had to tell me where I was headed all those years of choosing to remain on the road that led to the abode where the spirits of the dead were spending eternity, because I knew.

As the providence of God was revealed to me, I took a detour before slipping into eternity without the Savior.  I had one foot in the grave and the other on the slimy road of sin. 

For years I was too foolish and strong-willed to make a change in those lonely days of rebellion, but something happened that opened my eyes to the fact I needed Jesus in my life.  This is a story for another writing.

Our time on earth is like sand in an hourglass.  There is only so much sand, an hour’s worth.  How long is the lifespan we have in this body?  Only God knows.  Both sand and time make their journey as they were designed to do, to end up in a place that awaits their arrival.

Sand and life itself pass quickly through the tiny orifice of time much faster than we can grasp the older we get.  Sooner or later each of us will enter the place where we will spend eternity, heaven or hell.  This destination depends upon which entity we choose to give homage—Jesus or Satan.

The choice is ours to make just as it was with my friends in school.  This is the fact about our fleeting life.  Do not slip into eternity without your paid ticket in hand to present at the pearly gates of heaven.  Jesus paid for that ticket when He died on a cross for our sins.  He is the only one-way ticket to God Almighty that God recognizes.  No other manmade ticket will suffice.

(James 4:13-14), “Come now, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit’;” (vs 14) “whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow.  For what is your life?  It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away.”

www.wordsfrompapa.blogspot.com

Written by,

Papa Boyd