I'M NOT GETTING OLDER, ....
Rev. Bill Young
March 17, 2023
Scripture for the day: Isaiah 40:31; Psalm 37:25 But those who wait on the Lord Shall renew their strength; They shall mount up with wings like eagles, They shall run and not be weary, They shall walk and not faint…. I have been young and now am old; yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his descendants begging bread.
Thought for the day: They say you can always tell when you're getting older. You know when:
• You feel like the morning after, and you didn't go anywhere the night before!
• You sit in a rocking chair and you can’t get it going!
• Your knees buckle and your belt won’t!
• Dialing long distance wears you out!
• Your fortune teller offers to read your face!
• The little gray haired lady you help across the street is your wife!
• You sink your teeth into a steak, and they stay there!
• When you know all the answers, and no one asks you the questions!
• When you decide to procrastinate, but never get around to it!
I hear a lot of people talking about retirement these days; I suppose that’s only natural as you put more years behind you and at least some of those things you’ve always wanted to accomplish have become reality. I was guilty of it myself from time to time when the demands of the day were, and are, more than I can meet. Eventually, whether we like it or not, there come the times when our thoughts revolve less around what we’re likely to accomplish than they do about what we would like to leave behind. At the same time, I have trouble envisioning a life without more to do than can be accomplished in a single 24 hour period. Perhaps it's just the optimist in me but I still believe Jeremiah 29:11 is for those of us in the "irrelevant generation." I believe the Lord leads his servants until they take their last breath on this earth and wake on Heaven's shore. I believe there is one more person to be reached, one more disciple of Jesus Christ to be nurtured, one more sermon to be preached, one more lesson to teach, regardless of our age.
When I was in college in Colorado a number of years ago, one of the professors retired; I think he was 70 years of age at least. One of the students asked what he would do, now that he no longer had the demands of teaching to consume his days. His reply startled me at the time. He said, "I'm moving to Arizona to plant a church." At 70 years old! Why didn't he move there to play golf with his remaining years? Why not relax and enjoy life? He’d certainly earned the privilege, hadn’t he? What would possess this man to expend the kind of time and energy needed to begin a new church? I believe it was just this: he determined that he would live until he died and that in the living was purpose.
The great evangelist George Whitefield was relating the difficulties of the gospel ministry to some friends. He said that he was weary of the burdens and was glad that his work would soon be over and that he would depart this earthly scene to be with Christ. The others admitted having similar feelings -- all except one, a Mr. Tennant. Noting this, Whitefield tapped him on the knee and said, “Well, Brother Tennant, you are the oldest among us; do you not rejoice to think that your time is so near at hand when you will be called Home?”
The old man answered bluntly that he had no wish about it. When pressed for something more definite, he added, “I have nothing to do with death. My business is to live as long as I can, and as well as I can, and serve my Savior as faithfully as I can, until He thinks it’s time to call me Home.”
I'm not getting older; I'm getting better. And with that comes the desire to live until I die. There are new heights to climb, new territories to explore and new adventures to experience as the Lord leads us along. Plan as if He's never coming for you. Live as if it could be today.
Now go take on your world. - Bill