davidbowerkingwood

I Find It Hard to Believe I’m That Old!

Every once in a while, the thought will come to me, I’m 85, and I’ll laugh, that certainly sounds old but I don’t seem to feel all that old in the least. I celebrated my 85th birthday in February and I’ll have to admit that my body is sending signals that some things are beginning to wear out or slow down and, as I’ve mentioned in A Surprising Discovery, my perceptions and priorities are continuing to change dramatically.

This has all been a very gradual process and has generally been rather easy to ignore, at least most of the time, but nevertheless the change has been steady and, as we know, inevitable. Both my wife and I have tried to take some steps to live sensible lives and have been fairly careful about what we did and how we did it and as a result have succeeded in maintaining a comparatively good level of health for people our age.

We have long accepted that the seeds we were planting in our lives as young people would begin to bear fruit as we grew older and are now beginning to see what sort of fruit those seeds are producing.

One of the most important seeds we planted as young people was our commitment to the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord. We are now reaping a harvest of joy and rejoicing in the Lord that brightens every day of our lives together; we are having a joyous time just being together and sharing our lives.

Keeping Busy at 85

I retired from 36 years in the home building business in 2004, I was 71 years old at the time and had really planned on working until I was 75 but for several reasons decided to cut it short and retired at 71. This September it will be 14 years of retirement and my life has taken some exciting turns.

I had read about others retiring, getting bored and even dying so I wondered where my life would go after I retired. Would I get bored without a job or would I find something new to occupy my time; fortunately, the Lord had made plans for me even if I hadn’t. While there was never a time when there was nothing for me to do, it was going to take some time for a new direction to become clear to me.

I am definitely a “technophile” and enjoy our computers and my home theater; that alone can occupy many hours of the week so I always have that as a fallback position; there was, however, going to be something more the Lord had in store for me and that would involve going back and finishing something that I never once dreamed would even be possible.

As a young man I had attended Dallas Theological Seminary with the goal of full time ministry service for our Lord; those plans were not to be as financial difficulties brought those dreams to an end, or so I thought. We stayed in Dallas for almost 10 years (see An Aerospace Diversion) as I hoped something could be worked out but as time passed it became evident to me the Lord had something else planned.

Back to Houston

We decided to move back to Houston and I found a job in home building where I worked for 36 years and retired which brings us back to 2004. Four years later, in December of 2008, I got an email from Dallas Theological Seminary, (I had enough hours there to get emails from them as an ex-student). That was probably the most exciting email I had ever gotten because it announced a special program for ex-students that would permit them to return, complete their work and actually graduate from DTS.

I was beside myself with excitement, failing to graduate from DTS had been a burr under my saddle since the early 60’s and the opportunity to complete my studies there and graduate was a dream come true! I lost no time in sending in my application and with the help of the Admissions Department was able to enroll in the January, 2009 Spring semester. Later I recall being told mine was the first application they received for the new program. I was ecstatic and took to my studies like a duck takes to water (a favorite expression of mine).

I’ll never forget how difficult it was for me the first time; I was getting around four hours sleep a night and having to study hard and work hard both. We had three children and our daughter who was born at that time came down with double pneumonia and had to be hospitalized. This was a remarkable time of testing for both me and my wife!

This time I was retired and didn’t need to work so I could devote as much time as I wanted to my studies; my heart went out to the young people in my classes as I remembered the stress and strain we experienced the first time around.

By that May I had finished the work DTS required of me and was able to join with my fellow graduates and finally, after 46 years, was able to graduate and get rid of that annoying burr under my saddle! (I’m the one in the white circle on the left)

Next time, more on the new way of life that was developing.