I Needed This … Perhaps You Do Too?

I was told yesterday that sometimes “old folks” need a “wake up call” to help them realize that they are indeed, “old folks”. I want to hit the “snooze button” on that call for at least another 10-15 years when I am in my mid 80s. For the last two or three years, however, I have begun to regard my body as something akin to an old car; one which is still on the road but you don’t dare to take it far from home for fear that it may break down, leaving you stranded, without a way home. I saw a bumper sticker on an old truck the other day that said, “Honk if you see a part fall off”. I can identify with that! In that context, the following was helpful in refining my focus. Perhaps it will help you!

When Languor and Disease Invade

Augustus Toplady (1740–1778)

When languor and disease invade
This trembling house of clay,
’Tis sweet to look beyond my pains,
And long to fly away.

Sweet to look inward, and attend
The whispers of his love;
Sweet to look upward to the place
Where Jesus pleads above.

Sweet to look back, and see my name
In life’s fair book set down;
Sweet to look forward and behold
Eternal joys my own.

Sweet to reflect how grace divine
My sins on Jesus laid;
Sweet to remember that his blood
My debt of suff’ring paid.

Sweet in his righteousness to stand,
Which saves from second death;
Sweet to experience, day by day,
His Spirit’s quick’ning breath.

If such the sweetness of the streams,
What must the fountain be,
Where saints and angels draw their bliss
Immediately from thee!