"No one escapes entropy," my friend, Daniel, graciously reminded me as we pedaled the trail along the Verde River, and he endured my complaining about perceived impacts of my last concussion. I can't go as fast, hold my line as well, jump as high or justify exceeding my limits nearly as well as I used to.
"Are you suggesting I might just be getting old?" my forty-eight-year-old ego blurted. I've been leaning on my concussion excuse pretty hard to deal with my disappointments on my bicycle. After all, if Dennis McCoy (DMC) can compete in the X Games at 51, I should be able to stay crazy for at least that long. But here's another harsh truth, I'm not DMC... and his X Games run was much more exhibition than competition. Everyone was really just marveling at what an old guy could still pull off without breaking his hip from a moderately rough landing. You're still my hero, Dennis.
My older friend, Ken, stopped in the bike shop this morning and the ground his imposing physique is losing to his battle with Parkinson's is obvious. But so is his eternal hope as he briefly encourages us both in the eternal promises of our faith, namely a new body like Christ's. Another old friend, Cowboy Jim, has been filling my ears with glory days stories while his eighty-something-year-old back struggles to recover from being overambitious cutting firewood. Seriously, Jim?! What are you still doing out there by yourself with a chainsaw? Short answer: same thing I'm still doing on a bike - fighting entropy.
My list of priceless old friends who don't know when to quit could go on for a while. With minimal effort, you could make a long list of biblical heroes who have the same flaw. Entropy has been God's law to govern and test us ever since he cursed the world of Adam. It's the educational way He kills all of us. If you learn the lesson, it's eventually entropy that dies while we live on. He is risen! He is risen, indeed! Oh right, Easter was yesterday. Oh wait, it's still true!