Sunday was my birthday...I turned 63. I wrote the following post last year. I thought I would re-post it. I posted it...not so much for you, the reader, but more for myself...to sort of reinforce how I should feel being another year older. My son asked me at lunch on my birthday how I felt about being another year older, and I told him that I was just happy to be on this side of the grass. It's funny how much you can enjoy life...when you simply lower your expectations to just being able to draw your next breath! Anyway, here is a re-run...
Aging With Grace
All things here on Earth are subject to an aging process…and if it is God’s plan, and we are lucky enough to grow old, we will experience aging ourselves. Man builds a new home, and after a period of time, that home needs to have repairs made. The weather, or just the simple fact of people living in it, will require things to be replaced, or repainted. Man builds a car, and it gets driven thousands of miles. After a period of time, the car will need to be serviced…and at some point it will be heading off to the junkyard.
The fact that these things are all creations of man means there is no philosophical greater purpose at work. It is just the laws of nature…things are new when they are made, they experience use, and they become worn out.
Since God created man, there a lesson for us to learn about aging. There isn’t anything random in God’s universe, there has to be a larger purpose to us becoming old and wrinkled than just our “parts” wearing out like that of a car.
When we were born and in our youth, our existence was more physical than cerebral. Most our needs were based on our environment. As we became teenagers and young adults, we became aware of our bodies. We played sports, we became attracted to others, and discovered our sexuality. In our 50’s and 60’s we begin to realize that gravity starts to play a part in the way we look, and act.
We all have that one day when we look in the mirror and discover that we are “old”. About the same time we come to realize that the things we used to do in the yard in one day, now take several days to do. There is a sense of sadness when we discover that we are no long young and vibrant…that time has sort of passed us by.
Unlike the house, and the car I used in the opening of this blog, we are not destined to continue on our journey to the scrapheap. Because we are creations of God, aging is just another one of God’s teachable moments with us.
My wife and I just added a new puppy to our household. She is so full of energy that it almost impossible to train her. She strains at her leash, exploring her surroundings…without regard to her own safety. We also have an older dog, who just sort of watches the antics of the new puppy, and you can’t help but think the older dog is sitting there thinking, “The foolishness of youth…so much wasted motion!”
I think God intentionally wants us to lose a step or two, just so we can s-l-o-w down in our lives. This stage of your lives is meant for us to use our brains more than our brawn. He wants us to learn to relate to others on higher plain than we did we were younger.
My wife and I are in the worst shape than at any point in our relationship. We are older, heavier, and we both constantly have an ache somewhere…but that’s as it should be, we are not 20-years old anymore. Having said those disclaimers, I love my wife more today than I did the day we were married. I love her on a level that I didn’t even know existed when I was 20. All of this was possible, because we were forced to relate to each other in different ways since our physical attributes are not what they once were.
Our youth was a time for us to explore the world…with the unbridled enthusiasm of my new puppy. Our later years are a time for us to gain wisdom…to read books, to write books, to grow in our understanding of the universe…to figure things out. This older stage of our life is a time for us to begin to get our house in order, to build our lasting legacy, to mend and tend to those things broken in our lives. It is a time to grow closer in our relationship with God.
God took the spring out of our step so we would quit pulling on our leash. He wants us to walk along side of Him and not ahead of Him. He wants our full attention, so that we get His entire message…and not just bits and pieces.
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