Going on a Trip

Friday, June 6 I will celebrate my fifty-first birthday. I would like to think that I don’t look my age, however I certainly feel older than my age. It seems as though each day I have a new pain. I try not to complain about the aches and pains.

The last thing I want to be as I get older is a person who talks about what all is wrong with them. I have an elderly relative who is like that. I learned many years ago that you do not ask her how she is doing. That is a mistake because for the next 30 minutes she will tell you everything that is going on. She is a sweetheart and has brought much laughter to our family with her aches and antics.

Ten years ago my dad was diagnosed with prostate cancer and she called to console him. She said, “Lewis don’t worry about this prostate cancer, I’ve already had it and it’s not that bad.” My dad told her that women do not have a prostate, to which she replied, “I know but I’ve had the female kind.”

I am looking more forward to the day after my birthday! We will be going on a summer trip. Most of you call it vacation, but it is a joke in our family and church that if I go on vacation, someone is going to die and I will have to come home and do their funeral. We had a stretch of four years where this was the very case.

During that period I left a camping trip and came home to do a funeral and went back. I also left Pigeon Forge at 4 a.m. and drove back to conduct a one o’clock funeral and then went back to the vacation with the family.

In the middle of a Disney vacation I caught a flight home, a deacon picked me up in Atlanta and drove me to a funeral. When I finished another deacon carried me back to the airport and I headed back to finish my vacation with the family.

We jokingly say now to the people who know me, they do not want me to go on vacation, because if I did someone will die and it might be them.

Now we all know that it was just a coincidence that all these died while I was on vacation, but it does make people stop and think when we tell the story. What if it were true and what if I insisted on going on vacation each year? I believe many would be concerned as to whether they were the ones who are going to die during this time.

It doesn’t matter whether I call it a trip or a vacation, it is possible that someone could die and it could even be you.

The bible says, “It is appointed unto man once to die and then the judgment.” Death is no respecter of persons. It comes to all creation regardless of age, race or sex we all will die.

In the words of Si Roberson, “That’s a fact Jack.” It’s important that each of us is ready for when that time comes. A relationship with Jesus Christ is the only way to make sure you are ready.

Okay I’m ready to go on my trip and get some relaxation; I hope you’re all still alive when I get back. If not I hope to see you in heaven some day.