Getting Things Done

A lot of integrity v. despair in the winter years has to do with what we used to do and what we are able to do now.

When Isabella Beecher, one of Lyman Beecher's seven remarkable children, was in old age, she despaired because she could no longer be the advocate for social justice that she had always been. "But grandmother," her granddauther said, "you have the satisfaction of knowing you always did your best." "Yes, but I can't do anything now," Isabella replied.

When our girls were in late grade school, or maybe junior high, they said about their mother, with disgust, "It's going to say on your tombstone: She Got Things Done."

Don Survant says that despite health issues, he and Gloria are "...able to do most of what we want to and all of what we have to."

Kathy Roberts sent me the obit of a nun that said "She did what she could as well as she could for as long as she could."

It's good to be able to do what you have to. It's even better if you can do what you want to. We don't always have control of what we can do, though. Being at peace with God means, I think, doing what you can as well as you can for as long as you can, and accepting the grace and forgiveness for what you did not do, and what you cannot do now.

We are not saved by works but by God's grace-full love. Ironically, that's probably harder for people who have worked and do work in the church to accept.

As we become less able to do, we have to rely more on others to do for us. That reminds us that finally we can do nothing for ourselves, except trust God.