Stretching Forward

Photo by Wesley Souza at Pixels

The devil slinks in and whispers lies when we are the most vulnerable. “No one likes you. You’re rude, selfish, and self-absorbed. Remember what you did back in 1971?”

And on go his accusations.

He wants us to weep for things lost, hang our head with remorse for every mistake we’ve made, and continue yearning for things that might have been, but cannot be. This keeps us from focusing on God and his eternal, unbroken love for us. The devil doesn’t want us to accept God’s forgiveness and move closer to Him. He wants us to remain broken, sorrowing, hopeless.

A death in the family is a low point. Not only do we sorrow for the one we lost, we are acutely reminded of our own mortality, especially if we too are in our so-called golden years. There is more behind us than ahead. At least that is what the devil wants us to believe.

That may be true of life here on earth, but not so of our next life. It goes on for eternity and in less vulnerable moments, we remember that.

St. Paul has a remedy. “For one thing I do: forgetting the things that are behind and stretching forth myself to those that are before.” Phil 3:13.

I like the imagery of stretching forward rather than leaning backward. No one cares what mistake I made back in 1971, especially God. “As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our iniquities from us.” Psalm 103:12.

The only exception to looking back is counting all of God’s miracles in our lives, recounting our blessings, and remembering loved ones.

Otherwise, as St. Paul also stated, “Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith.”

Stretching, reaching, moving forward with our eyes fixed on God and everything else falls into place. Sounds like a life well lived.

Laughter Really Is Good for the Soul

Photo by Perlenmuschel @Pixabay

Life has been tough the last few years with moving to a new area, cancer treatments, and a death in the family. With two more unhappy events yet to take place, the clearing all the things from my parents’ home and the memorial service for my dad, I haven’t been the jolliest of souls.

My sweet husband is a gentleman in every way and the most grownup person I have ever known, but once in a while he will do something uncharacteristic just to make me laugh.

A thunderstorm hit as we drove to the market. I had no coat. No hat. No umbrella.

I whined. “I’ll be drenched before I can get inside the store.”

My husband looked over at me. “You’re not so sweet you’ll melt.”

After a shocked pause, I laughed. He was right.

Then, my sarcastic knight dropped me off at the front door so I wouldn’t get wet.

When we were first married, he tried to tell me how to do his laundry. He wanted his underwear ironed. For one heartbeat I thought he was serious and formed a proper rebuttal. The twinkle in his eye made me laugh instead. Still, he does his own laundry.

He tried to tell me he found elk feathers when we were out camping. I’m too woods savvy to fall for that, but it made me laugh.

My husband loves burritos. It has taken me years to convince him there are other food choices. When my daughter called the other day and told me she saw a restaurant called the Burrito Bandito, we laughed until I thought I’d pass out. My husband will never know that place exists.

Another memory came to mind.

Several years ago, I worked for a group of private bankers. The dress code required I wear suits and heels. When the weather was foul, I wore winter boots and carried my dress shoes in a tote. 

One morning I arrived to work and discovered I had only one dress shoe. I must have dropped the other one at the bus stop. I couldn’t wear my snow boots with my suit all day, and I had a moment of panic until I called my husband. The gallant man that he is, he agreed to find my shoe and bring it to the office.

Thirty minutes later, after receiving my shoe and a kiss, I rode the elevator back up to the office with two other gentlemen.

One kept looking from me to the shoe.

Finally, he could stand it no longer. “Are you looking for prince charming?”

I smiled. “Actually, I already found one. He just brought me the one I dropped in the snow at the bus stop.”

It wasn’t a long winding staircase leading from a castle, but close enough.

My knight may show a little wear and tear as we enter our golden years, but I wouldn’t trade him for anyone else in the world. He knows all my secrets, all my scars, and wrinkles, and still loves me. He offers comfort, lends me his strength, and knows when and how to make me laugh, all just when I need it.

Although laughter doesn’t make the unpleasant things go away, it makes the world seem a little lighter. It is a blessing I intend to indulge in more often despite some circumstance, and I may even instigating some of it myself…