Boy my shoulder hurts. I know that sounds like a small thing, and in truth, it really is. I’m not taking chemotherapy pills, nor do I have a surgery scheduled that will take me out of working or parenting commission. But it hurts.

It hurts a lot especially when I’m trying to throw around three kids who, by this time, have a near nightly expectation of a fairly rambunctious wrestling match in the living room.

It also hurts my pride a bit because this, along with other things, remind me that my body isn’t what it once was. Not that I’ve ever been on the cover of any magazines, but I am feeling a bit more rickety these days than I once was. My body, like everyone else’s isn’t getting better. It’s getting worse. It’s in a state of decay, and the tendonitis in my shoulder which flares every time I lift a little boy over my head is a constant reminder of that decay.

Now there’s a couple of things I can do here. One, I can mourn the loss of my youth which is rapidly fading away (or potentially already out the door). Such mourning might indeed push me into efforts to regain my youth which might encompass any number of things. Extra marital affairs, eating disorders, obsessive exercise – these all might come from such a spirit.

Or I can embrace what the Spirit seems to be saying. He seems to be telling me to rejoice in my tendonitis. Rejoice in the decay of the body. Praise God for this tangible reminder that what we have on this earth is temporary.

According to Paul, in 2 Corinthians 5, our bodies are like tents. And no one wants to live in a tent. They want a house.

So when the flaps start blowing in the breeze, when the rain drips through the ceiling, and when the temperature gets too cold for the canvas to keep out, we can look to the better home being prepared for us in Christ.

Thank God for tendinitis:

 ¹ For we know that if our earthly house, a tent, is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. ² And, in fact, we groan in this one, longing to put on our house from heaven, ³ since, when we are clothed, we will not be found naked. ⁴ Indeed, we who are in this tent groan, burdened as we are, because we do not want to be unclothed but clothed, so that mortality may be swallowed up by life. ⁵ And the One who prepared us for this very thing is God, who gave us the Spirit as a down payment.