Tiny Devotional for Tuesday, 11/03/2020

A great good morning to all my friends and neighbors out there in Internet Land! And to family members who may have dropped by: toasted bread with honey and a slice of cheese.

My son, do not forget my teaching,
But have your heart comply with my commandments;
For length of days and years of life
And peace they will add to you.
Proverbs 3:1-2, NASB


I was 10 years old when I concluded that a normal human lifespan wasn’t going to be enough. I needed at least a thousand years, but preferably a forever lifespan, and also I needed a completely functional body for all that time. I was a reader of Golden Age science fiction, you see. 

Twenty years later, I became a father for the first time, and immediately after that, I bought my first life insurance policy. It was the first time I gave (fleeting) serious thought to my own mortality.

Incredible bummer statement follows!

An unspecified number of years later, and I’m presented with a diagnosis of a genetic condition producing chronic pain, followed closely by the end of my career, and of my family.

I’m trimming out all the parts that make the facts into a story, but here’s the sequence:

  • I wish this could last forever!
  • This isn’t going to last forever.
  • When is this going to end?

Fortunately, I kept holding on (and I am yet holding on!), until I discovered moment-by-moment acceptance and delight in the peace which is promised. It’s not a monastic path of self-denial; my life of peace includes good coffee, kissing my wife and offspring, and doing the next right thing.

Life isn’t always a party, but the element of striving is gone. Peace remains.

Peace be on your household.


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