acting my age

i don't really pay attention to age that much. in fact, i can distinctly remember a time last week when i was stating what my age was and in the back of my head thought, "wait, is that right?" some people fixate on their age, not me. ironically, today's blog is going to spring out of how old i am....

i was reading today in 2 chronicles 21 about jehoram... not one of your "good kings of judah." his dad was jehoshaphat - a good king, his grandad was asa - a good king... jehoram, on the other hand, once he got on the throne and established his kingdom, "killed all his brothers with the sword and also some of the princes of israel" (guess he just tossed that second part in for good measure), he married one of ahab's daughters, built high places in judah, and led the inhabitants of jerusalem into whoredom AND made judah go astray...

let's just say that this guy was so bad that elijah, whose main ministry was in wicked israel (with ahab and such), wrote him a letter... i'll paraphrase... "you've been wicked (unlike your father and grandfather), so you're gonna be cursed and your family, too... oh, and your intestines are gonna come out."

well, the ethiopians and the philistines got mad... came and took all his stuff and his wives and sons (except the youngest) "after all this the LORD struck him in his bowels with an incurable disease. in the course of time, at the end of two years, his bowels came out because of the disease and he died in great agony.... he was thirty-two years old when he began to reign, and he reigned eight years in jerusalem. and he departed with no one's regret."

wow.

why am i writing this? well, i'm 32. jehoram sure made a wreck of the next 8 years of his life. hurting lots of people around him and suffering excruciating pain. (i will believe the Scripture when it says "great agony," having never really had a case of my bowels coming out). and nobody was sad that he died.

my prayer is that i will live differently. God help me to be a proverbs 3:5-8 man over the next 8 years (or however many You give me).

"trust in the LORD with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight. be not wise in your own eyes; fear the LORD, and turn away from evil. it will be healing to your flesh and refreshment to your bones."