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Why The Older You Get The Harder It Gets To Keep Going

This post is republished from January, 2014. I hope you enjoy it.

This morning I played hockey at 6:30 am and, as I reflect on it, I am feeling older. Both my elbows are sore. I’m not sure whether I have tennis elbow or some other injury, but I think I just have to live with it, if I want to keep playing.  

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This was my first game since before Christmas so I’m still a little winded right now, lounging on my couch in our family room writing this blog. I haven’t done anything active for a while (except shovel snow) so I wasn’t at the top of my game.

There were younger guys playing who had lots of energy. I used to have energy, loved to skate hard and could go forever. Now my hips get tired if I go for too long, so I have to coast a bit or go back on defence.

I notice I’m playing defence a lot more these days. I used to hate being a rear guard, working behind the play, throwing the puck up to the forwards and watching the play develop.  

I was always in the middle of the action. I was quick to break out and always went to the net. I still play with that sense and urge, except now I don’t mind taking a turn initiating the play and watching it unfold as I coast up the ice catching my breath.  

Don’t get me wrong, I would never want to be a full-time defenceman – that’s not me. It’s just that I need a change of pace from skating hard and crashing the net. 

I was a little surprised this morning that my knee felt pretty good. I wear a custom-made carbon fibre brace on my left knee, to give it support because of a torn ACL. I’ve been wearing this brace and it’s predecessor for the past 23 years.

This thing has been a lifesaver. With it, I’ve been able to play baseball, hockey, snow ski, and water ski. Without it, I doubt I would have been able to do any of those things.  

But even with my brace, in the last while my knee has not felt as stable. It feels like it is deteriorating a bit and I may need to have it scoped again some time.  

Being a pastor, I’ve done my fare share of visiting people in the hospital who’ve had hip replacements, knee replacements, and open heart surgery, and their stories stick with me. I hope I won’t be in their place one day.

However, with all my aches and pains, I can’t rule that out. I never saw myself as having parts that would wear out. Now I wonder about that.  

My right elbow has regressed, it feels like it did about two weeks ago. It hurts to even bring my hand up to my face. Oh well, I’ll play again on Monday and try to get myself back in shape. Once I start playing I don’t really think about my aches and pains. 

There’s something about being in the action that dulls all those twinges of discomfort.

Here’s the thing: It’s easy to let little annoyances and pains stop you from doing activities that are good for you. They can become a great excuse, and justify giving up. You find the same thing in your spiritual growth. Little things will try to keep you from continuing on the path of growth. Don’t give in, keep growing.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What do you find gets in the way of you growing spiritually? Leave your comment below.

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The Aches And Pains Of Old Age

I have been told that as you get older you have aches and pains that you can’t explain.

When you’re young, if you’re hurting, you know the cause of it – it’s because you fell off your bike, or tried to jump a fence, got caught on the top and landed funny.

When you’re young you have many questions that need answers, but why you’re hurting is not one of them.

When you’re older, however, you get some pains that are unexplainable; you just can’t come up with answers.

I sometimes have some pain in my shoulders. I don’t know why; I didn’t do anything to hurt them recently.

I have pain in my wrists sometimes too, and I can’t put my finger on a cause for that either.

I usually chock it all up to years of falling off my bike, or body abuse from years of hockey – you know, just old injuries that healed, but probably left some lasting side effects that will make their debut sometime after I turn 60 or 70.

Up until now I’ve experienced some minor phantom aches and pains in my body. But this past weekend I experienced a new one. This pain came out of nowhere, but left me thinking I needed a hip replacement.

It was like a switch got flicked and I went from being upright, like a fully-formed homosapien, to  being all hunched over, like a regressing neanderthal.

On a dime I turned into an old man who really needed a cane to get around. Trying to walk up a staircase was agony! … and I don’t mean agony just because of the pain; it was agony for anyone to watch me.

Every time I walked it felt like my bones were crashing and rubbing together, as if I was trying to start a fire with the friction.

It was quite concerning. But here is the crazy thing …

A few hours earlier I had been playing hockey, racing up and down the ice like a young man.

I never got hit, never crashed into the boards. When I got off the ice, I had no symptoms of restricted movement whatsoever.

After hockey I attended a men’s breakfast where about a half dozen men from my church saw me walking just fine.

This hip issue came on a few hours later when I sat down to write a blog post.

I am a bit of a sloucher and I wrote the blog sprawled out on our couch. When I finished and tried to get up – wow! – I suddenly felt like 78 years old, on a waiting list to have my first of two hips replaced (if you need one, you know the other one is coming).

Fortunately, after an uncomfortable night’s sleep, I woke up to a hip that was much better. I still don’t know what happened or why … but I am over 60.

I do have hope that it will get better and soon I will be racing up and down the ice like a young man again.

Here’s the thing:  They say that when we get older we get wiser. But that doesn’t mean we have the answers to everything. We might fool ourselves into thinking we know, but when something unexplainable happens, we are left dumbfounded. There is never an age when we don’t need the wisdom and the help of God. In fact, there is not an age when we need God more. We always need more of him, so never stop seeking him.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What unexplainable thing draws you to the all-knowing God? Leave your comments below.

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Wow, It’s Just Another Birthday

It’s my birthday today (Friday), and they say I’m one year older … but I don’t feel one bit different than I did yesterday.

I don’t really feel any different one day to the next, but I guess as you look at the past and then ahead to the future, that’s when you start to feel your age.

This year I joined a baseball group for those over 60 – I think I’m the young guy on the team. Playing ball again has got me looking back to years gone by.

In Monday’s game, I tracked down a few fly balls and, though I got to most of them in time to make a play, my quadriceps muscles have been killing me the rest of the week.

I never really thought about my muscles years ago. When I needed some speed, I just ran harder. Well, now it’s not so easy; now I pay the price for trying to get to a well-hit ball … couple that with three all-out sprints to first base and I wish I had a wheel chair to move around in this week!

I did manage, however, to play golf with a friend near the end of the week. He made a comment that he never thought walking 18 holes was exercise, but now he does. That’s crazy talk! … but I had to agree with him.

During my previous game I had carried my clubs around the course. I found out that I can do that for nine holes without a problem, but I’m not able to carry my clubs for 18 any more. Yet years ago I had though nothing of it – it was just walking.

When I look back on things, I definitely see how I’m a year older today.

Then when I look forward, I see what is to come … and it’s coming quicker than I really want it to!

I performed a funeral last week and visited a few elderly people in my church. All these people were very vibrant when I first took this position. I guess that’s what staying in one place for a long time does – you get to see people grow up and grow old.

I’ll admit I’m not really excited about life in a senior’s home or nursing home. Maybe I’ll change my tune when I get to that age … all I know is that I feel it closing in on me.

I also know that the longer you live, the less friends you have. But when your best friend is your doctor, simply because you see him more than anyone else, you know you’re really getting old!

Well I thought today I might take a day off of exercising, and even cheat a little on what I eat, but with all these thoughts of aging, I might have to re-think that.

Maybe I’ll have to double up on the exercise and ask for the senior’s meal at the restaurant tonight … which we all know is not a discount but just a smaller portion.

Here’s the thing: When you think about maturing in your relationship with God, it can be hard to tell one day from the next if you are progressing. At times it might seem like you’re moving forward, but other times going backwards. Well, look in the past and look ahead to the future to evaluate your maturity in Christ over a longer period of time. Then make sure you don’t stop where you are at, but keep moving ahead.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What have you noticed about your relationship with Christ over many years? Leave your comments below.

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Forty Years and Forty Pounds

It’s been a long time since I’ve seen some of my high school buddies. I’ve known most of them for over 40 years. We got together a few weeks ago because one of the guys was visiting Toronto from out west.

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He moved out there 30 years ago and says he’ll never move back. I know you’re probably thinking he moved out to Vancouver or some other west coast city. If you’re thinking that, though, you’re wrong, because this guy is never coming back from Ded Reer, I mean Red Deer, Alberta.

Nothing wrong with Red Deer; I passed by it lots when I lived in Edmonton. You always felt good as you made that one slight bend in the road between Calgary and Edmonton. Red Deer was the indicator you were half way to your destination or half way home.

I was looking forward to seeing the guys, but I happened to look in a mirror a few minutes beforehand and realized I didn’t really look the same as I did in high school.

And though I knew all the guys very well, when a few of them showed up, it was like seeing them for the first time.

I found the two biggest factors in recognizing my old friends were weight and hair. If they didn’t have hair, that made it difficult, because 40 years ago we all had hair (lots of it, too).  If they had gained weight, that also made it difficult because it altered their facial features (along with some other features). If they lost hair and gained weight, well, then it was like being introduced to a brand new friend.

One guy I didn’t recognize the entire night! It took my brain until the next morning to run him through my internal facial recognition files, but there he was … although now he is a little slimmer, a little better dressed, and his hair is way more under control.

There were 15 of us who descended on Wendel Clark’s Classic Grill and Sports Lounge that evening. And it took most of us about 4 hours or so to undo 40 years of history. But believe me, the old jokes, nicknames, stories and fables all surfaced during the night.

It’s hard to imagine that you can have little or no contact with people for years and years, but once you get them all back together in the same room, it’s like you never were apart. It was still as comfortable and easy to be with these guys as it was back when our hair was shoulder length and we were listening to Steely Dan and Elton John.

Here’s the thing: Lots can happen in life. Things can change us, and make us look a lot different than we once did, both inside and out. But God knows us so well that if we decide to meet with Him again, it will be like we were never apart. It’ll still be comfortable and easy. Let me encourage you to meet with God and refresh your relationship. He is eager to get together with you.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: Who have you found it easy to reconnect with after a long time apart?  Leave your comment below.