Of Old Men and Service

My confession for the day:  I have a soft spot for old men, and I tend to collect them and keep them until they leave me.  I am not sure why this is, though I do have many theories given my psychology background…one centers around the fact that I have never known a grandfather.  My grandfather died 6 years before I was born, so the only grandparents I have known are my grandmothers.  So I am not really sure why it is, but I really can’t refuse anything to an old man that looks at me with those big eyes and bushy eyebrows and gray sticky-up hair.

I currently have 2 old men I am keeping in my pocket who routinely tug at my heart-strings.  One is in his 80’s but doesn’t look a day over 60, and he drives like he is 16!  He calls me about every 3 or 4 months asking me something about his computer or something else.  So I usually end up dropping everything and running over to his house to solve whatever problem he has going on.  The other is our best friend’s dad who has the most technologically advanced dental office that I have ever seen…and doesn’t know anything about computers.  He amazes me every time I go see him, as I have never seen a man with more faith in the future while not having any idea where it is leading him.

With not having much knowledge about computers, he is a computer tech’s dream…because they can take advantage of him, which too many have done.  My husband and I discovered this about a year and a half ago when his server died…a horrible death.  His entire x-ray system depends totally on his server and the information stored on it…without it he can’t take x-rays at all.  The (thinking of a word that isn’t profanity) people who set up his whole system were absolutely useless…and to be of use they wanted an extreme amount of money, that he didn’t have.  Even if he did have it, no one should have to pay that price for less than the best service and rigs in the world!  Anyway, we took care of his problem and we became his computer people who he calls and texts for whatever is causing a problem.

This isn’t something that bothers my husband and I, as this is how we earn our blessings and find joy…we love helping people with these things.  Recently this old man of mine moved his dental office and with that all his computers…to which he turned to us, with those big eyes and sticky-up hair.  I have no ability to refuse him anything, so of course we said yes, we will set up your computers and network lines.  In his office he is running 6 computers, all networked and running his dental programs off the server.  We got my mother-in-law to watch the kids on Saturday, and spent 12 hours down there trying to get all the lines going and the computers working; then about 3 hours on Sunday afternoon, and another hour or so that night.  By the time Monday rolled around and he texted to say that one of the computers wasn’t working, my back hurt so bad that I could barely walk…and the thought of crawling under that desk again made me want to cry.  But my old man needed me…so off I went.  Overall it ended ok…he had to get 1 new computer, which needed to be replaced anyway.  I am exhausted, but my back is gradually getting better and I think my son will eventually forgive me for leaving him on Saturday. 

More than all these things, we are happy!  We are so happy to have helped and continue to help…we love to serve and this has brought us so much joy the past week.  My old man continues to say “thank you”, but he doesn’t realize that I just want to throw my arms around his neck and say thank you to him for letting us serve.  We have had many opportunities to serve many people in this way…some are members and some aren’t, but we serve each the same.  Some give us gift cards for diapers, some just look at us and say “thank you so much, you saved us”; but there are always some who won’t accept it no matter what we say…and those are the people who I hope will read this.  I am not saying that our lives are going perfect because of this, because we are still having our difficulties…but they just aren’t as debilitating anymore.  I didn’t care that my stomach is still not working…it just didn’t matter anymore, because I was serving another.  I lost myself in serving, and even though I missed my kids, I was happier than I have been in a long time.

So here’s to serving, here’s to old men, and here’s to happiness!  May we all discover that joy is found in this life by giving ourselves to others in service!