Aging

I have been thinking about aging more lately. It is not because I'm having a birthday anytime soon, but is centered around my aching back. I spent the final days of last year dealing with an aching back. I strained my back and spent several days moving from the bed to a straight-back chair. That tends to make you think about aging - which we all do. Someone has been so bold to suggest that I move to the nursing home. It's nice to have friends like that.

I was reading about one of my favorite Bible scholars. He is an former pastor, author and Bible teacher. I had the privilege of hearing him a few years ago. Warren Wiersbe is Bible scholar who has written the "Be" series - commentaries of many of the books of the Bible.

Anyway, in Wiersbe's autobiography, he writes about one particular day. It was a drizzly day and he was suffering from the pangs of arthritis. It reminded him of the consequences of getting old. In his devotions on that day, God led him to Isaiah 58:11, which says:

"The Lord will guide you continually,
And satisfy your soul in drought,
And strengthen your bones;
You shall be like a watered garden,
And like a spring of water, whose waters do not fail."

Then Wiersbe wrote this:

"After I've attended my last meeting and preached my last sermon, written my last book and answered my last letter, told my last joke and said my last good-bye, and I wake up in the presence of my Lord, I want to be able to say to Him what Jesus said when He came to the end of His earthly ministry: 'I have glorified You on the earth, I have finished the work You have given me to do' (John 17:4)."

That's a good word for all of us. Oh, that we might be able to live our lives to the fullest and be able to say to our Lord "I have glorified You on the earth."

John Wesley, one of the so-called founders of the Methodist church, said on his seventy-first birthday: "How is this, that I find just the same strength as I did thirty years ago? That my sight is considerably better now, and my nerves firmer, than they were then?" Nine years later, on reaching the age of eighty, he said, "Lord, let me not live to be useless."

I can't say that my strength is the same today as it was thirty years ago. Nor can I say that my sight and nerves are better than they were. But I want to be able to say, no matter my age, "Lord, let me not live to be useless."

We need to ask God use us no matter our age. May we be able to say that we lived each day being useful for God's Kingdom.