Posts Tagged: old and crotchety

“AM I ALREADY THERE AND JUST DON’T KNOW IT?”

On September 22, 2018 by Dteb With 0 Comments - down to earth believer

A friend of mine told me a hilarious story that has left me pondering a serious matter.

My friend and I were talking about the danger of becoming old, crotchety guys.  I said, “Man, I don’t ever want to become demanding and hard to please.”

He replied, “I once said something like that to my family, and I added, ‘If I ever become like that, just take me in the back yard and shoot me!’”  Immediately, his teen-age daughter grabbed him by the wrist, and began dragging him toward the back door.

Now, of course, if he had really been that bad, his daughter would have probably been too afraid to do what she did.

However, this funny story causes me to wonder: Am I already becoming what I don’t want to be?  It’s an easy question to ask, but no easy to answer.  In fact, I’m not altogether sure that I even want to answer it.  Still, I’m learning to sit with hard questions, without trying to squirm out of them prematurely.

And here is the deal: Crotchetiness is like body odor; it creeps up on you, and you never smell it yourself.  Other people certainly are aware of it, but we are not.  Like all qualities, good or bad, becoming demanding and hard to live with take possession of us slowly.

So, every now and then, I check in with my wife and friends.  Fortunately, I have people who love me with the truth.  What a blessing!

Still, I need to be careful.  It is always possible for character to deteriorate.  Good character development is never a default position.

And, of course, God often uses funny stories to get inside my head.  They rattle around and unsettle me in ways that I need to be unsettled.

You too?

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