Growing Older Gracefully

Growing Older Gracefully

Joshua 13:1 “When Joshua had grown old, the LORD said to him, ‘You are now very old, and there are still very large areas of land to be taken over.”
Isaiah 46:4 "Even to your old age and gray hairs I am he, I am he who will sustain you. I have made you and I will carry you; I will sustain you and I will rescue you."

The Bible sometimes seems to display the truth with a certain amount of humour. Take this first quote as an example – as if Joshua needed reminding of his great age. Then, just to rub salt in, the Lord tells him of the amount of work – hard fighting work – still to be undertaken. Then in Isaiah, the Lord reminds all of us of what may await us in old age – help in both maintaining our lifestyle and even with getting around. 

Yet, for many of us, growing older is anything other than graceful or gentle or slow. Suddenly, we have time on our hands. Hopefully, we have sufficient finances too. What for? For Kingdom work – that’s what. You see, I now believe that our first 60 plus years are simply training for the final 20 or so years. I believe that it’s only in our first 60-odd years that we gain the experience to handle the last stretch. Growing older gracefully takes on a different tone for Christians. So many older folk feel they are no longer of use in the world. They seem to lose, or worse, give up all hope once they reach a certain age.

Fortunately, God doesn’t seem to treat us like that. He doesn’t throw all our experience away when we reach “retirement age”. No, God looks forward to that time with us because He has so many things for us to do – in fact we are a little spoiled for choice. Here’s a few of the things we bring to His service as we get a little older

Time is the most obvious thing we have as we grow older. Then comes resources. Most people have a moment in life when they stop working and live off their pension. This creates the time. Resources can be almost anything from finance to expertise to tools, physical tools or experiential tools. The next fairly obvious resource we bring is our experience. It may be experience of a job or just simply life experience.

Life contributes knowledge and this is an invaluable asset we older folk have in abundance. We also have the time and the willingness to use all these resources for God’s Kingdom. Finally, because we have all these wonderful assets, we bring one more asset to the table – that of availability. When God asks the question, all we say is “Yes Lord.” 

Growing older does not mean sitting down and wasting whatever is left of our life. It is, to me, the greatest opportunity to serve God in whatever way He asks us to do so. I love what He is using me to do right now and my wife loves it too. There is no wasted effort, nor any squandered opportunity. God places us in positions where we can serve Him very easily. It’s not hard nor is it costly. For us it is a most joyful place and we are truly looking forward to this next phase of our lives.

It’s exciting too, just watching our new life unfold before us, and knowing God is using us to perhaps bring new people into relationship with Him. 

What a privilege – what an opportunity.