Breaking Back


Like the lead character in Breaking Bad, I am contemplating my mortality. For the last several days, my back has been killing me. I am not planning to start cooking  in a Meth Lab but I am considering visiting a chiropractor. Usually, when my back hurts, I can trace the spasms to some event where I didn't use proper form in lifting something heavy, where my back was not in a proper arc. Number one rule is to always look up when bearing something heavy. Of course, that has a spiritual application.

Besides sleeping on some couch cushions on the floor in our hotel out in Chicago to escape my dad's snoring  (I went out to the other room), I can't pinpoint anything behind this current malady. Maybe it is stress-related because I am dealing with a series of unknowns right now. I have also not drank any coffee/caffeine in the last week. I am trying to not be mastered by anything and I thought it a good idea to fast from caffeine for 40 days. So, maybe it is a withdrawal symptom like Delirium Tremens for alcohol.

It is a blessing to have illnesses and the like. Such foreshadowing of death can do much to make our days matter. The Apostle James calls this life a vapor where we pass from the scene like withering grass. Bye-bye. Our earthly lives are so important yet so short. We need to make the most of them for soon they will be no longer. We have to break from this life while in this life, and calamities, illness, and problems make such letting go easier. When we are broken, God then becomes our only source of hope and support.    

When Jesus tells Peter the following in John 21:18, it is a poignant reminder of the brevity of life

Verily, verily, I say unto thee, When thou wast young, thou girdedst thyself, and walkedst whither thou wouldest: but when thou shalt be old, thou shalt stretch forth thy hands, and another shall gird thee, and carry thee whither thou wouldest not.
         

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