Age Well

As I am writing this week’s column I have been thinking about a sermon I will be preaching later this week at a United Methodist senior adult gathering in Elizabethton. This will be my first time speaking at a senior adult event, and I am honored that they asked me, though I have been struggling a little with the invitation. I am not a senior, yet. But the reality is that I am rapidly approaching this stage of my life, and rather than view it with fear or avoidance, I am choosing to embrace it as the gift that it is.

            God has gifted me with this life, and I am enjoying it. And so I have been looking over Scripture passages that might be a good fit for this senior adult event. I thought about Abraham and Sarah, and how God made a promise to them that they would have a child in their old age. Sarah thought this was so unimaginable that she laughed out loud at God. I thought about Moses, who was in his 80’s as we was leading the Israelite people on their trek around the Sinai Peninsula after their exodus from Egypt. I thought about Caleb, who was one of the first spies sent in to check out the land of the Canaan, the “promised land” that God would give to his people, and how at the age of 85 Caleb said that he felt as young and strong as he did when he was 40. And as Solomon aged he looked back on his own life and gave views of life and death.

            There are some great stories in the Bible of aging well.

            One of my favorites is Psalms 71. This was a song written by an older man who was looking back on his own life. Here is something that I appreciate about his perspective: he isn’t focused on regrets. I am pretty sure he probably had some, but that isn’t the focus of his psalm to the Lord.

            “You have been with me from birth, from my mother’s womb you have cared for me. No wonder I am always praising you! My life is an example to many, because you have been my strength and protection. That is why I can never stop praising you. I declare your glory all day long. And now, in my old age don’t set me aside. Don’t abandon me when my strength is failing” – Psalm 71:6

            I think as we get older we can look back at our lives and see that God really was with us through it all, whether we realized it at the time or not. And that is cause for celebration; that is cause for continual praise!

            I pray that when I am 80 I can look back on my life as an example of the love and grace of God. But the beautiful reminder is that I don’t have to wait 40 years for this. I can do it now. I can, by the grace of God, live my life now as an example to my spouse, my children, and my friends. And part of that involves praising God. He has been with me. He is with me. He will be with me.

            And so we pray that God does not set us aside, or abandon us in our old age. The reality is that there are people that will. As we get older we just can’t do all the physical activities that we once could, we can’t run as fast or as long as we could when we were younger. And sometimes it seems that society values the young and the strong more than the wrinkled and the wise. But that is not true in God’s eyes.

            The psalmist prays, “Don’t set me aside”. And God won’t. And neither will His church. It takes all of us together to live abundantly in this Christian life. We can do it together, and we can finish well, until the day we all stand before our Lord, and then may we hear “well done, my good and faithful servant”.

            Praise Him today for the gift of today, and age well, my friends.