Turning 32...

Playing "Grandpa" for a Christmas play, 2004.

Not sure what to think of 32. I hardly got to know 31. Come to think of it, whatever happened to 30?

Isn't it funny how time changes as time progresses? Oh, I'm sure some nuclear physicist out there would set me in my logical place over that last sentence, but many times what is true of our experience doesn't match what logic and math tells us. I know that time doesn't change. But our perception of it sure does. One day we're young and we feel that way. Sooner than we want, we feel old. Sometimes those two feelings are a matter of days apart. Sometimes hours.

One truth about life is that every person is getting older and more frail. Even someone who is 12 years old. Our bodies gradually disintegrate until they can handle time no more and they lay down for a final rest. Not so with our souls, for sure, but definitely true of our bodies. And each birthday is a reminder of that frailty. And a reminder to me that I need to be focusing more and more on the spirit and not neglecting the spirit in favor of the flesh. Saint Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians that even though our flesh may be getting weaker and weaker, our inner man -- our spirit -- is being renewed day by day through the power of God's Spirit. So while we live in ever decaying bodies, our hearts can be getting stronger and stronger if we let God's Spirit work within us to mold us and shape us into the image of the Son, our Lord Jesus Christ.

That's what I'm thinking on this day, when I turned 32.