Our Older Years
The pastor of a sizeable Brisbane church was taking a leadership meeting. The topic was not divorce but it somehow came into the message. He paused for a moment and then asked the group of leaders before him, “How many here feel divorce is never justified?” A group of hands went up. He then made this observation, “Everyone who just indicated they don’t believe divorce is justified is under 35 years of age. I won’t ask the rest of you to tell me if you think it sometimes is, but I suspect we’ll find that the older the group, the less black and white we are about some of these issues.”
We sometimes joke about how we wish we could be young again because we knew all the answers back then.
Age does something. It mellows us. It gives us the chance to realise we don’t have life all worked out. Age knocks a lot of the sharp corners off us. It should make us more gracious, more sensitive to where someone might be at.
With age we feel more vulnerable. We know we’re not bullet-proof. We’re far more aware of our limitations. This can make people fearful but it can also increase our trust in God. We know we can’t do a lot of things we once could, but this can deepen our reliance on our Maker.
Age tends to make people more defensive. That can be good and it can be bad. God wants us to trust Him for discernment, wisdom and protection.
Make your older years count. Ask God to give you a new working of His Spirit in you and through you. Ask Him to make this the most fruitful season of your entire life.
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