Encouragement

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So you have found yourself with grey hairs and perhaps some arthritis. You don’t move as quickly as you used to, and life is looking kind of different than you anticipated. Perhaps you have battled some major physical setbacks and are weary. It is taking you longer to recover from things than it did a few years ago. But you find comfort in knowing you are on the down-hill slope of life. Finally, the day-to-day drudgery of work may be waning for you – bank account and retirement to look forward to… gonna travel and finally relax a bit….. but wait, why is there this gnawing uneasiness in your spirit? Why is that simply not enough?

You talk with other friends who tell you to relax and enjoy this time of life, after all, you’ve earned it. Don’t volunteer to fill that void in your calendar. Take up hobbies or travel. Let the young whipper snappers knock themselves out “out there”. It is time to take it easy, after all, isn’t it?

But when you try, you find that this is not enough either. Your life was, for so many years, about working and providing for your family, or being active at church and now your role has changed. Now, perhaps for the first time in a very long time, it is all about YOU.

Or is it?

Help me out here – where in the scriptures does it say we reach a certain age and retire from serving Christ and our fellow man? Where does it say if we are older that we are not necessary, or our contribution no longer important? Where does it say that life is ever about us? Nowhere! It is always and forever shall be all about HIM!

Senior brothers and sisters, don’t buy the lie that your lives are nearly over – they are not over until HE says so. As long as you have breath in you, He needs you to be present and accounted for, ready for service. If you have fallen into a rut of inactivity, start today to take your part in the stream of life again. Show up. Participate in what God is doing all around you. He is busy everywhere and needs the saints to be his hands and feet. OK, so my hands are withered, or my feet have heel spurs – but they still work! And so must I. God NEEDS us. Even if you are feeling feeble, or are an invalid, can you still begin to spend time interceding for others? Can you begin to devote yourself to prayer? What skills do you possess that others still need to learn – you could find someone with a heart for learning, and mentor them. Do you write well? Then write! What are the gifts that God has given you? He has not taken them back, has He?

May we never buy the lie that satan is distributing that we are “over the hill”, or that we should step out of the mainstream of life and relax till we are to push up daisies. That is his way of getting seasoned saints to feel sorry for themselves… to get us out of his way. He makes us think we are past our prime and useless, when God says instead: “Come. I need your experience, your patience, your wisdom.”

The Master calls, we must obey. Don’t let His call go to voicemail. We must stop shaking our heads at “the way things are nowadays”, and stand up and make a difference! I, for one, am saying this day: “At your service, my Lord”. How about you?

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