Pine Away

I met a man in his 80s whose wife had recently passed away. He was estranged from his entire family with the exception of one niece who lives several hundred miles away and phones him about once a month. He has specified in his will that his possessions will all go to her. He has a comfortable home and living. He has cut off communications with almost everyone he ever knew. Most of the problems were very trivial. He seemed to demand perfection and a great deal of attention from others. When he didn*t have his own way in any relationship he ended it. He has health issues that will soon end his life. He doesn*t care. He said he doesn*t care if he dies today, tomorrow or next week. He was wallowing in self-pity.

We wondered if he knew where he would spend eternity. He didn*t care about that either. He was not even willing to discuss it. All he wanted was to be heard. And he only wanted that for a few minutes. In about a 20 minute conversation I don*t believe he absorbed a word that he didn*t speak himself. He wasn*t deaf but every word ran off him like water off a duck. He was somehow incapable of two way communication. He seemed incapable of any give and take in any relationship, including our 20 minute relationship.

He must be the loneliest man I have ever met. He must also be the unhappiest man I have ever met. A few weeks after the meeting with him I came upon the phrase pine away in the Bible. My thoughts immediately returned to that man. He was pining away in his sin. Please join me in prayer for him. Pray that the Lord will somehow work the miracle of salvation for him before it is too late. Everyone*s salvation is a miracle anyway. If you are saved, it was a miracle God worked for you. And He is certainly able to work another little miracle for that miserable wretch.

Leviticus 26:39: And they that are left of you shall pine away in their iniquity in your enemies* lands; and also in the iniquities of their fathers shall they pine away with them.

Ezekiel 24:23: And your tires shall be upon your heads, and your shoes upon your feet: ye shall not mourn nor weep; but ye shall pine away for your iniquities, and mourn one toward another.

Ezekiel 33:10: Therefore, O thou son of man, speak unto the house of Israel; Thus ye speak, saying, If our transgressions and our sins be upon us, and we pine away in them, how should we then live?

Do you know anyone like that man? Or, worse still, are you like him?

Care to discuss Pine Away with Ron?

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