A birthday is always a time for celebration, right? Maybe yes, maybe no. When I was in my 30’s, my birthday was usually celebrated by finding a 10-K race to enter and run, even if there was snow on the ground (February 21st in Chicago, don’t you know)!! Wow, those days are so long gone. (And all of that running on concrete is what my ortho docs said led to my left knee replacement!)
Many of the biblical characters lived well into their 100’s with some like Noah living to the ripe old age of 950!! (Genesis 9:29), while others like Abraham were just a kid when he died at 175 years of age (Genesis 25:7). Seriously, God? If someone lived to be 175 today it would be plastered all over world newspapers! Did you know that we actually are told in the bible that our lifespan blessed by God is somewhere between 70-80! Listen to this Psalm which is called “A Prayer of Moses” – “Seventy years are given to us! Some even live to eighty. But even the best years are filled with pain and trouble; and soon they disappear, and Then We Fly Away.” (Psalm 90:10, NLT).
God has blessed me with seven years of life beyond my 2017 cancer scare, surgery, and radiation. “Pain and trouble” – most of us can testify to that in our lives. I am sure readers of this blog and my book, The Merton Prayer, will not be surprised to hear me say that “my miracle kidney stone” saved my life. If I had passed that stone in three days in December 2016, which is the normal time span, instead of taking 8 weeks to pass it, I would not be around now. My cancer was so aggressive that my doctor told me after my 2/13/2017 surgery that if my cancer had not been caught due to that stubborn kidney stone, I had ONLY 3-6 months to live!
The Merton prayer has been with me every day of my life for decades and it took away the fear which came when I first heard my aggressive diagnosis and that I should have surgery very soon. You will not be surprised that I put off the surgery for three weeks so I could go to Kentucky and attend a UK basketball game with my brother and sister! Priorities must prevail, right?
So, as I think more and more about life in heaven with God, seeing my mother and father, the four grandparents whom I never met, my Brother-in-Law Dean, and many others, it is sort of a blessing to encounter Psalm 90:10 and to start thinking about “Then We Fly Away”. I look at birds in the air differently now post-Psalm 90. And when I hear that one sentence in The Merton Prayer – “I have no idea where I am going” – now I hear it differently! I do indeed know where I am ultimately going, maybe not today or tomorrow, but at some point. And I now am filled with joy by these words – Then We Fly Away!!!
How does this grab you? Can I get a witness?
Leave a comment, if you wish, regarding this post or how you found The Merton Prayer and why it is important to you.
You will find The Merton Prayer and more at https://www.themertonprayer.com
[NOTE: If your organization, church, or school would like a workshop/presentation on The Merton Prayer please use the contact tab and let me know! I can Zoom all over the world and have done 90-minute, 3-hour, 5-hour, weekend, or five-day workshops/retreats.]
The Merton Prayer 