Right now my health is pretty good for a guy about to have his 75th birthday. I feel really blessed and very fortunate. I had a physical this morning and it was pretty uneventful, I didn’t even faint when I got my blood taken, that doesn’t happen very often. I am riding my stationary bike every day, lifting weights, and I am going to start going to the pool with Patty each morning to swim. I am still preaching and teaching half a dozen times a week, working around my house most days, and planning a 2,600-mile, unsupported bicycle trip this summer. I am going to drive to Alaska this summer pulling my dory boat, fish up there for a month for salmon and halibut, and then maybe shoot an elk, a deer, a bear, and whatever else walks in front of me.

So many of my friends and people I know in the church have serious health issues that are such a burden for people to carry. As hard as you try to be cheerful and positive it is tough when you don’t feel good, have no energy, and struggle with just about every daily chore you have.

I pray every day for all those I know who are struggling with health issues that God will give them strength, joy, and a very strong sense of His presence and pleasure in them as His children.

I know that the number of years that I have left on this earth are getting less and less and one of these days I am going to hear the big C word or something similar.

I know of a few people who have just charged through life with very few health issues and just fell over dead one day, that would be nice, but not very probable, for most there is usually some kind of health issue and struggle that takes you down, little by little, usually with not much dignity intact at the end until you just quit breathing. It is just part of God’s plan for most of us. I know that when I get to that point in my life that it will be a time of growing in my character and in my relationship with the Lord just before I see Him face to face.