Humbled and Grateful!

Humbled? Yep.
Grateful? Yep.

Why?  As I age, I realize that I can no longer do things that I thoroughly enjoyed as a younger man.  One of those is physical labor.  We built the house we currently live in 21 years ago and I dug trenches in the heavy clay soil to run the water from the downspouts 30 feet away from the house.  I framed and wired the basement.  I did the drywall and finish trim in the basement bedroom and bathroom.  I painted the entire basement.  I built the very large deck off the back of the house.  

Which brings us current.

My youngest son likes this kind of work and has started to remove the rotten decking.  If anyone has ever done this themselves, they know that 20 year old screws do not want to come out of the joist without a fight.  I was looking forward to Saturday morning when I could break out the sawzall and cut off the offending screws and assist.

My back had different plans.

I've had back surgery, maybe 8 years ago, and I've become very aware of the things that will cause me serious issues.  I cut maybe 20 screws off before I could barely stand up straight again.  I had to quit and admit defeat.  

It was humbling.  I fought back tears, if I'm being 100% honest.

I started to tear off the pergola instead so I could at least contribute something!  While doing that and staring up at the heavens, a bald eagle paid me a visit and made me grateful that I'm still on the earth.  Still a dad/father.  Still able to do most things.

God is GOOD!!!