He Who Holds Tomorrow

My husband called from work day before yesterday with sad news.  His co-worker's wife had just died unexpectedly.  It made him sad, although he did not know her personally.

It also caused him to face his own mortality, which created some discomfort.  He is, after all, on his third career, two of them post-retirement after his primary banking career of over 30 years.

When approached about taking his current job, he liked it for three reasons:  a) he didn't have to work indoors, b) he got to talk to people all day, and c) best of all - he didn't have to wear a tie!  He knows what his priorities are.

Meanwhile I retired last year, and by that I mean, I retired.  Yes, I was offered a few consulting gigs, but after doing a few I realized I simply was retreading old ground.  Been there, done that.  So I said a polite "No thank you" to the following offers.

Thus, as last year drew to a close, I was not quite sure what I might be doing this year.  Turns out, I seem to be blogging quite a bit.  Who knew?  I would not have thought of it, but my daughter Denise encouraged me to give it a try.  (You can find her at The Quiet Quill.)

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Ahh, writing.  Now that is something that never grows old.  It can get frustrating, demanding, perplexing and a dozen and one other challenging things, but it does not get old - because no two writing days are ever the same.

I do not know where we will be living next year, and I certainly do not know what we will be doing.  Meanwhile, we will, as an old friend used to say, "keep on keeping on."

Today, I head north about 100 miles to help out my son with some housework.  He teaches special education at the high school level, and he does it from his wheelchair.  He has many physical challenges, and goes about life knowing that he has a Teflon graft on his aorta which, should it ever tear loose, will be the end of him in about two minutes.  He works, and lives, and yes, laughs knowing this every day.

I am just his mom.  I don't know where he finds the courage to do what he does each day, as he has done for over 25 years since the accident that left him paralyzed from mid-chest down. Once he said to me, "Mom, when I wake up every morning, I have a choice.  I can either lay there and feel sorry for myself, or I can get up and do the best I can with what I have left.  So far, I have always chosen the latter."

The only way I know to cope with life's uncertainties is to give them to Him Who Holds Tomorrow.  Thank goodness, He knows what He is doing, because the rest of us will never quite figure it out.  A really smart guy named Solomon tried, and all he could come up with was "vanity, vanity."  I am not inspired by that.

Of course, as one fellow once said to me, "If we could figure God out, then he wouldn't be God , now would He?"  Alll righteee then.
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Therefore we do not lose heart.  ... For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.  So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen.  For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.                                         II Corinthians 4:16-18 NIV

Hope your today, and your tomorrows, are in His hands.  God bless you - Marsha