Wasting Away

“Therefore we do not lose heart, but though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day.” (2 Corinthians 4.16, ESL)

I had one of those “wasting away” experiences today.

I’m trying to gather things I’ll need for the July Poland mission together ahead of time. (See sidebar.) While trying to choose some socks at Stein-Mart I noticed that the printing on the labels all of sudden resembled the view through a kaleidoscope rather than simple English type. I know what that means for me now that I’ve been through it numerous times – migraine!

It’s crazy really. For years my wife, Sandra, suffered from migraines that knocked her flat for a day or two. We asked both God and the Docs for help for so long and then – sort of all of a sudden as well – it was solved for her. But some time later I began to experience that kaleidoscope-vision-experience and the headache that follows it. My experience isn’t nearly as serious as Sandra’s was, but still, it is a hassle and it has been strangely more frequent lately. It stands out to me as stark evidence of the wasting away reality none of us can avoid.

From the moment of conception, our biological clock starts ticking down those seconds from the personal allotment we each have to draw (Psalm 139.16). Time is such an unfriendly escort along the earth journey. Each heartbeat, while it sustains us, also takes something from us. And aging is such an affront to our sensibilities we become vulnerable to the same demons that haunted Ponce De Leon, or worse (Botox?).

Why is it so? Simply because we weren’t made for this. We are like fish out of water or butterflies in a petrified garden, dying to taste the saltwater and the nectar of life. Life is what we were made for and this environmental deprivation we must live with for now only heightens our awareness that things are not right in this world. We groan or whine at that awareness or we draw hope from it.

Even now as the pain begins to seep deeply into the core of my brain where it will reside and percolate for the next 36+ hours, I coach myself to stand firm in the hope, that anchor in the storm. I tell myself that it’s all about wasting away. The more this vessel wears away, the closer I get to full experiential disclosure of abundant life.

Thank you, wasting away. You are making room for more of eternity!