"How Will Things Be?"

Several years ago, I wrote a song in a moment (okay, several days) of introspection, brought on by a number of things:

• the Engineer having poked me in the eye, causing me to wear an eye patch for a week and lose my peripheral vision
• remembering a financial analyst talk about having people practice being older - putting on opaque glasses, implements to make the surface area of their fingers and thumbs bigger, etc. - so they learn how difficult things will get
• the start of discussions about the evils of contemporary worship (or, as Mrs. Quipper calls it, "disposable worship")

It is called "How Will Things Be?" I decided to post this based on a variety of posts and comments I've read on blogs over the last couple of days. (Disclaimer: THIS IS NOT A HYMN - so don't tell me it doesn't accomplish the 4, 5, or 6 things a good Lutheran Hymn should accomplish. Thank you, I had to get that out of my system.)

How Will Things Be?

I’m sorry, can you please repeat
Those words you last said to me,
My attention was taken away.
Didn’t mean to ignore you,
My concentration is not what it used to
Be in my younger days.

Never thought we’d see this day,
Life was simple way back then,
I remember way back in
Those days I was a younger man
Acting like I was invincible,
Trying to delay the inevitable, and

Refrain:
How will things be when it’s just you and me,
And all that we have are the hymns and the creeds of our youth.
When the lights start to dim and the memory fades,
Will we hang onto our lives or keep faith in the Word?

I’m sorry but this cannot be
How’d my eyes fail to see
What you had given to me?
It all used to be so clear
Now I can’t see anything far or near.
How do I get through the day?

Words are failing me again.
Always on the tip of my tongue,
But now I cannot find a one
To say what’s on my mind today.
Forgetting all the things I want to say, and
All the friends I’ve had along the way, and

Refrain

I’m sorry that it ends like this,
So many things that we’ll miss
When we are called back home.
This should be a joyous day
I don’t know if I’ll be okay
Can I make it on my own?

I wish you were by my side.
But I cannot change a thing
But, my love, I still believe
That I will be with you again
One day soon, in paradise, be-
Cause the scales had fallen from my eyes

Refrain