The Day I Was Referred To As “Sir” & Reality Set In

Dropping a child off at college is not for the weak-hearted. Packing and loading up the car is stressful, but it is the emptiness of the house upon returning that brings you to an emotional crisis. As I moved items into the dorm room and unpacked an assortment of boxes, I realized that this phase in my life is not so much about having grown children but more about shattering my illusion that I am no longer for the sake of a term “young.” This was further illustrated when two college students approached me to help them with their stuck door and addressed me as “sir.”

Just the other day, I was walking and pulled a muscle. An acquaintance of mine topped that, recalling a time he pulled a muscle while still in bed. I laughed, but as I write I feel a cramp in my non-writing hand.

My purpose in writing is not to complain, as I am certainly blessed. I thank God for my health. Even as I write, my mind recalls many people I know who live with afflictions that debilitate their everyday existence.

Watching my father-in-law slow down has been hard. Sometimes I still picture him as that college football player I only knew about but never saw. The healing process in my own life is so much slower than it used to be. My calendar at times is filled with the names of doctors and appointments.

There’s the eye doctor, the urologist, the dermatologist, and the general physician. Last year, my orthopedic doctor told me I had arthritis in my right shoulder and recently told me that my left shoulder has tendinitis; this doctor doesn’t even know that I have a fake hip. I am totally open to being bionic if that helps me with my illusion of considering myself to be young.

I want time to slow down. I want the body I had years ago. I want to stop the clock—but the reality is that I cannot. Sometimes that scares me. At a funeral viewing a friend of mine said these words, “One day this will be us.”

The first funeral I ever officiated was outside in the scorching heat of Stuart, Florida. I was a rookie at this, and I did not feel very confident that morning. But I felt confident in the words I read from the Word of God:

2 Corinthians 4:16-5:10

“That is why we never give up. Though our bodies are dying, our spirits are being renewed every day. For our present troubles are small and won’t last very long. Yet they produce for us a glory that vastly outweighs them and will last forever! So we don’t look at the troubles we can see now; rather, we fix our gaze on things that cannot be seen. For the things we see now will soon be gone, but the things we cannot see will last forever.

For we know that when this earthly tent we live in is taken down (that is, when we die and leave this earthly body), we will have a house in heaven, an eternal body made for us by God himself and not by human hands. We grow weary in our present bodies, and we long to put on our heavenly bodies like new clothing. For we will put on heavenly bodies; we will not be spirits without bodies. While we live in these earthly bodies, we groan and sigh, but it’s not that we want to die and get rid of these bodies that clothe us. Rather, we want to put on our new bodies so that these dying bodies will be swallowed up by life. God himself has prepared us for this, and as a guarantee he has given us his Holy Spirit. So we are always confident, even though we know that as long as we live in these bodies we are not at home with the Lord. For we live by believing and not by seeing. Yes, we are fully confident, and we would rather be away from these earthly bodies, for then we will be at home with the Lord. So whether we are here in this body or away from this body, our goal is to please him. For we must all stand before Christ to be judged. We will each receive whatever we deserve for the good or evil we have done in this earthly body.” Putting our trust in the living God,

Pastor Rich Edwards