Somebody has to win and somebody has to lose. That’s just the way it is … the way it works. Usually there is great celebration. Oftentimes the winner receives some kind of trophy, award, reward, prize, recognition, etc. It may be a short lived time event or an ongoing battle which may take a very long time to accomplish.
Probably the longest running battle or struggle going on is good vs evi and with the sin nature itself..
When a person comes to Jesus and asks for forgiveness and for Him to come into that person’s heart and life he becomes born again … received a new nature within … becomes a new creation. However, as long as he lives this life on earth he will struggle with the sin nature. Yes, there is a battle going on inside of every Christian if they are sincere in their new life in Christ.
Someone once compared it to having two dogs of equal size and strength living inside of each Believer. One is black representing evil (or the sin nature or flesh) and the other is white representing the things of God. They are constantly battling against each other.
Who wins you might ask? Since they are a pretty good match the one who is victorious is the one who gets fed while the other is starved or malnourished. Now I am not talking about food. I am talking about the things each of them like. Of course, food could well enter the picture if we make it our god. If we feed the things that appeal to our sin nature and starve feeding spiritual food to ourselves the black dog will be victorious.
Living a defeated life by feeding the black dog is a wasted life … wasted years we can’t get back. But if we are guilty of this the old saying applies … better late than never.
I will be 79 very soon … getting up there. I started riding tadpole trikes back in 2007 when I was 61. I have put a lot of miles on over those years … over 170,000 miles. But I have noticed that I have slowed down. I was able to ride about 23 mph in the early days but with each passing years over the last 7 or so years my top speed and my usual cruising speed (about 18-20 mph) have dropped considerably. My top speed is about 15 mph … which I can’t maintain for very long and my usual cruising speed is now down to 10 mph. I used to have a strong desire to get out there each day and ride. That is gone. I can go several days with no desire or interest in riding. I still enjoy riding when I force myself to go but my motivation has certainly changed.
My wife is 10 years younger than me and still works. She doesn’t want to quit working yet even though she is past normal retirement age. She does plan on cutting back on her hours starting next year.
At one time we planned on riding tadpole trikes together. I don’t know if that will ever happen or not as she really doesn’t have much interest in it. We have talked about making some day trips and riding on some other trails even though we have about 140 miles of local trails where we live.
I have thought about selling the trikes now but I hesitate to. After all, riding them is the only form of exercise I get.
Winter is upon us … cold, windy and snowy. That certainly curtails any riding for me. And it definitely would prevent my wife from riding. The weather just suddenly changed. One day is was still fairly comfortable and the next day winter was upon us. It was like somebody flipped a switch. Hmmm, I wonder what Christmas Day and New Years Day will be like. I used to take annual rides on those days weather permitting.
Why am I telling you all of this? Just maybe there may be others going thru the same thing. Please feel free to comment. I don’t know if this is normal or not. I have to tell myself to …
