The Good Old Days

In our culture we think of youth as the good old days of life.  But is it?  Perhaps in God’s plan, the best years of life are the last years.  The tragedy is we do not believe that.  Granted, some of us have physical problems that limit our activities and many are care- givers.  But sometimes we give up too quickly; we quit; we fail to live up to our opportunities.  We feel entitled to just coast through our golden years.   

We try to keep our bodies healthy and fit—to do what?  To feel better as we putter around the house and yard is great, but we might consider that God has allowed us the leisure of our older years to do His work.  With less responsibilities—no job to go to or children to raise, we might have more time “to be about our Father’s business.”  The point is, we may not be as old as we think we are.

History is filled with people who achieved great things in their later years.  Few of us will ever fit into that category, but we can still be involved in the work of the Kingdom of God.  God will only call us to do what we are able to do, and he will equip us for the task He calls us to do.  There was a godly lady in a church I attended who lived to be 96 years old.  She lost her hearing and could barely see, but she sent letters and cards out every week to shut-ins, people in the hospital, and anyone she heard about that needed to be remembered.  It was what she was able to do, and it was not a small thing to those who received her cards.

We may start out serving our fellow man as a duty which our Christian faith lays upon us, but we will end up doing it because it is in this service that we find our greatest joy.  A life of Christian service opens to us the great discovery that unselfishness and joy go hand in hand.

“Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.”  Galatians 6:9