By
Tom Corcoran
At 71, it’s not about the cost of a new car, nor the need to redo the entire back yard, nor about figuring out where to go and when on the next vacation.
It’s getting to be, not a “demand” for the check, but an expectation it will be coming soon.
So the biggest question is very easy, the one you’ll eventually be asked by the “Big Cashier” at the cash register when the check time comes due. “So how did you enjoy our product (life), and was everything satisfactory, (what did you accomplish)?
Yup it’ a big check, and even American Express Platinum won’t cover it,…..only the “YOU” card can do it!
Basically “Do you have enough credit on your “YOU” card to cover it?
Now I’m 72, new things have popped up on the “Life bulletin board”, as it does for all of us, but where are we? I never knew I had arthritis in my hip (“for a long time” per my Orthapedic Doctor), nor extra weight problem per my Internist Doctor. But I’m just getting old,….plain and simple!
But now back to REAL basics,……is God in your life?
Most of us are “invincable ” in our 20’s, “moving and grooving” in our 30’s, hearing about this “getting older” thing in our 40’s, counting our retirement options and reviewing our portfolios in our 50’s, and reaching “PANIC” in our 60’s,…….after that it’s all “borrowed time” for us!
However that ‘s only the “earthly” concept,….and that’s not my point!
The real point is, as the old song says,…”…is that all there is, my friend?”
Certainly there must be more to life, living, and what after it ends?
There can be only “ONE” after life is over,….and that is the only a ticket to forever! So what is “forever?”, desert islands with warm 75 degree temperatures all the time and gentle ocean breezes, no clouds and warm sunshine, no need to worry about paying bills, a recliner, a giant TV, surround sound system, a private chef and a maid and butler, to satisfy your every whim? “No Snow”, no more shoveling, no taxes, no more Doctors visits,……what is, and what can be, the greatest “end of the road” experience imaginable, for you, as your all time reality to being in this ‘life’?? But guess what? It’s all going to happen anyway! (Now for the “small print”.)
For example, how did you get to be who you are, where you are, and more importantly WHY you are today? Trust me it wasn’t YOUR prowess alone, nor “the luck of the draw”. At some time, usually late at night when all is quiet and you are lying awake thinking to yourself “too much chocolate”, or “too acidic on the tomato sauce”, or “just plain too much to eat”. They are NOT the reason you’re lying awake and staring out the window into the night, at the ceiling, or trying desperately to simply ‘count sheep’, or watching the numbers on the digital clock change to five minute periods of minutes and hoping it covers an eight hour sleep period so you can get up tomorrow and do it all over again, with different and significantly better results!
We are both ignorant, and seized by “vanity”, if we have no other explanation. My question to you is three words, very simple, and easily understood, “…..What about God?” Does he exist in you? How much do you believe that?
Not that lying in the Emergency Room with tubes, IV lines and what ever else you are hooked up to, watching the agony on your families faces, or the total monitoring of you every second,….and all you can do is lie there, and wonder, “what’s going on?”.
Or even worse the wail of sirens and flashing lights as you realize you are pinned in your car and just getting conscious and know nothing, but you are hurting big time and “numb” from your waist down! Is there a God in your belief system,….or not?
So many things in the world, and the temptation to “succumb” is strong! So how strong are you? You know right, you know wrong,…..”but there’s always time to be sorry, and ask for forgiveness. But are you willing to bet your eternity that you’ll see that chance in time?
Not really preaching to anyone, I’m just a regular human being, and I’ve joked about the “Bible-Thumpers” and all the other evangelicals roaming around,….never really could see the total devotion and intensity,…but I guess that’s because I’ve never been a religious zealot. AND perhaps I am wrong in that judgement.
We are all without self righteousness, but there is a “reality day”, “day of reckoning”, “final judgement”, or whatever you wish to call it. For all the religions in the world they all have “end zone” days, where it’s either a “touch down”, or “an incomplete pass”,…..a win or a loss, no middle of the road answer for any of them!!
Sorry to ruin your day,…..but as Frank Sinatra used to say,”…..that’s life!”
-30- May 20, 2018
The Emerald Rose 
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