One week from today, I will be 60. (The Lord willing, of course!) That makes this the last week of my 50’s. Some would be moaning or decrying the reality that they are old. I am looking forward to my 60’s. I recently read a daily comment from Bob Biehl saying the 60’s ought to be one’s most productive decade. In addition, the alternative to aging is going to be with Jesus. I’m all for going to be with Jesus, and am ready right now. At the same time, I enjoy living here, and want to impact far more people than I have to this point with the Gospel, so if the Lord gives me another day, or year, or decade or two, it’s fine with me.
But this post and the next two are going to focus on the last week of my fifties. Anyone who has lived to his or her 60th birthday, has lived through birth, toddlerhood, childhood, adolescence, young adulthood and the transition years of the 50’s. As I look back I remember hearing a pastor who was in his 50’s preaching a sermon when I was in my teens. I don’t remember much about the sermon except a point he made about aging. He said, “If God were to give me the opportunity to become a day younger every day from this point forward, or to continue being one day older, I would never want to become a day younger each day.” I remembering thinking at the time the man was crazy. Why would you not want to be younger and younger instead of older and older?
Having reached and lived my 50’s I’m in full agreement with the pastor. I have been learning some realities about myself and my relationship with God over this decade that I wouldn’t trade for reliving my forties, thirties, twenties or teens. In addition, were I to become a day younger each day, I would know one day’s less worth of what I know, and would have one day’s less wisdom with which to approach the day ahead. What I have learned in my 50’s is while physical prowess is a blessing, it’s a poor substitute for wisdom. I could work harder and longer when I was younger than I can today, but now I know better which work is worth doing.
What I’m saying in a nutshell is I’m grateful to God for every day He has given me, but I’m particularly grateful He has given me my 50’s, years when my maturity has given me a perspective on life that allows me to be far more helpful to others than I have ever been, and far more at peace with myself. Life is a precious gift, and eternal life is even more so. While I was saved when I was twelve, I understand both life and eternal life much more deeply than I did back then. It’s interesting that nearly every culture in history has valued the wisdom that comes with age, but as we move into the 21st century, it is less and less the case here in America, and it seem in many other nations as well.
We are so enamored with the new, the novel, the latest technological device that wisdom has been devalued. I’m not complaining, simply observing. But if there has ever been a culture that has been more dressed up with less of a place to go that matters than our current one, I’m not aware. My Dad died in 1996. For the last ten years of his life he often said, “This world is going crazy,” when he would watch some senseless act of violence on television, or hear of the latest fashion or cultural craze. I have no idea what he would think had he lived an additional twenty years. It seems as we have accelerated the rate of change, we have not accelerated the rate of wisdom or common sense to go with it.
Please, don’t hear that as sour grapes from an old guy. I don’t want to go back to the America I grew up in. I do want to see Jesus lifted up in every generation. After all, what’s the point of getting everywhere faster, getting the latest information instantaneously, and developing better systems and techniques if what we’re doing has little eternal value? As I live out this last week of my 50’s I’m becoming a bit nostalgic, but even more I’m grateful to God for the passing days, weeks, months and years. I’m grateful that I not only know more now than I did back then, I’m more certain of God’s goodness and love, of His grace and mercy in my life and the lives of others than ever before.
I’m also more aware my moment for standing in front of Jesus to hear Him assess my life is much closer than it’s ever been. I live each day to be ready, because I so want to hear Him say, “Well done, good and faithful servant enter the joy of your Master’s Kingdom,” when that day comes. I’m not expecting that day to come in the next few weeks or years, but if it does I’m ready. When it does, it won’t be a surprise. That’s the benefit and blessing of having lived nearly 50 of my 60 years as His follower.
I pray you are living each day as if it matters, because it does! When we live each day that way as the weeks, months, years and decades pass, and we move from one milestone to the next, we can do so with joy and satisfaction.
Here’s to leading better, by taking time to reflect on where we’ve been, where we are and where we’re going–today!