Signs of old age appear everyday for me.  My latest venture is to feed the various birds hanging out in the trees at the house.  I started a few weeks ago in the midst of the brutal cold weather we experienced.  My menu consists of cheap bread from the local store.  Maybe it's just me but that sounds like a decent sign of aging.  Whistling when tossing bread is one of my experiments.  I wondered if it was possible to call birds the way one calls the cows to come eat.  Results are mixed at the moment.  Evaluating whether they recognize the bread or the whistle is still a work in progress.  One clear result is there are fatter birds hanging around now.  My favorite is to watch the cardinals come down to get their bites.  One selfish bird even tried to take the entire piece up into the tree.  Yeah, feeding birds may be a new sign of getting older.

Experts tell us that 50 is the new 30 and so forth.  I remember thirty years of age.  My body hurts more now than it did then.  Working out is one way for me to get into my life with a generally healthy body.  This doesn't mean a bus or big truck may not take me out but it does seem to produce for me.  Even going through two near fatal illnesses didn't stop me from exercise.  In fact, my usual habit was to finish chemotherapy about four in the afternoon then hit the gym as soon as possible.  Perhaps what exercise I was doing helped my heart recover a year or so ago to be healthier than before.  No one can mistake me for an elite athlete.  One of my other goals is to just train so body parts remain where they were when I was born.  I am just grateful to still be active even if it hurts on occasion.

Would I go back and do it again knowing what I know now?  That is a question that haunts me to the point that perhaps it's time to stop asking.  Let me be honest enough to say there are many things that would be done differently if I knew then or could use what I know now.  Frank Sinatra sang he only had a few regrets not worth mentioning.  He is lucky.  My guess is more than a few of us would do at least a few things different.  But regret can never replace experience or forgiveness.  There is also the truth of being blessed beyond measure with life.  God has a way of taking our worst mistakes to make them into something wonderful.  We do have this one single life to live.  My hope is to live it until it ends.

Work stuff is not nearly the same as it was years ago.  I tell people they can have any of my sermon notes should they ask.  What matters to me is the years of research or bible study that went into those messages.  I know far more about how to study in terms of what works for me.  Less time is spent dealing with the incidental in comparison to grasping the ideas of scripture.  Even being able to relate to people is on a different plane than it once was.  Being comfortable with who you are goes far in building relationships with others.  Way too much time was wasted in my youth trying to figure people out.  Aging gives you the insight that people are just people for better or worse. 

So my afternoons will include time to feed birds.  Perhaps they will learn my whistle as we move along.  God cares for those birds far more than I do.  He also cares for us far more than we imagine.  So let us all find daily bread in the comfort of His presence.

Bro. Trey