Getting Old...

What does it really mean to get old? Does it mean that you grow in knowledge? Does it mean that you move up the authority ladder of life when it gives you the right to boss people around that are younger than you and pity those who are many years your senior? Getting old is not just from a physical perspective …

I was brought to the realization the other day that no matter how old we get we never truly know how to grow up; I don’t mean that in a mean way, I mean it in a good way. Sometimes we can live a life so full of timelines, goals, and plans that we forget that we should be thankful for each day God gives us and remember the first breathe we received.

Throughout our lives we remember and hold onto meaningful words of advice from those we respect. My Pastor told me last year before I left for college “You know I was young once too and I know how it feels to rush life”! At the time, I was so mad at him that the words didn’t really stick. Now, don’t get me wrong I did listen to what he said, but I must admit I was a little mad at him. It pricked my flesh. The first thing that went through my mind was “I don’t rush things! ”

This “difference in opinion” recently came back to me and I realized how right on Pastor was and how badly we can be at self-evaluation. We all need to take a good long look at who we are as God sees us and not how we perceive ourselves. It’s no longer about our plans, our goals, our timelines, but walking in His will; even if His plan doesn’t fit into our plan. Self-evaluation means looking truthfully at ourselves and as Christians we need to be able to see if we are walking in the spirit or walking in our flesh. If we’re full of self we can’t see clearly or hear clearly.

I was looking at my high school yearbooks the other day and was amazed at the things people wrote to me. It brought back good memories of all the fun times I had with my friends. However, there was one quote that I didn’t remember reading before. It said, “On this day we are striving to be the person that we want to be, but truly we don’t know the person we are going to become”. What came to me is that so often we forget that along with maturity comes knowledge, but understanding often comes from learning from our experiences, whether they were a product of our good decisions or our bad decisions. We spend so much time thinking about what we want to be in the world that we forget that what we really should be focusing on is what God wants us to be. We need to stop striving so hard and actually listen, and most importantly, obey “that still small voice”, even if it doesn’t fit into our plans.

Sometimes the more we know the more we expect everyone else to understand and know what we know. In college and in the workplace I sometimes assume that what I know everyone else knows. I think the same thing applies for us as Christians. When we begin to mature and function in the spiritual world and do the work of God we can easily forget where He brought us from and that we were once where others are. Now I don’t claim to be an elder in the church, however, I’ve found myself seeing some young people following the same path that I was going down at one time, the path of self assurance instead of the guiding hand of God’s assurance.

Sometimes it is hard to know why God does certain things in our lives, but truly with each breathe we learn that it isn’t the knowledge that we need, but the trust. If we can trust that God will bring us through, we must believe that He’ll bring us to a place of understanding.
One of my favorite scriptures is Phillipians 4:13 “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me”. At one time I felt that my understanding and knowledge of a situation was going to be my strength, but God’s Word says that I should not lean on my own understanding. Thank God!

As I “get older” I realize one thing. God doesn’t work in our own knowledge because we know so little in life. The more mature we get in our relationship with Him we can see the pathway more clearly. The older we get the more we love to serve and not be served, the older we get the more we appreciate the work our seniors have done for us, the older we get the more we see that we actually know and understand so little!

God’s got great plans for us, but I feel I need to say that it isn’t what we know that is going to bring His gifts and blessings. We must learn to respect love and cherish one another. When one of us falls, we must lift them up in prayer, not criticize or condemn. We also must pray that the Lord will restore us, but also that He will reveal to us the lesson we must learn. We must see ourselves as God sees us and realize we will never know it all! Study His Word because He has
utlined an answer for our questions.

Isn’t it time to start trusting and believing that God will handle things and guide us in the right direction even if we don’t understand His ways or timing in our lives? Let go of the rigid timelines and your fleshly plans in life! If it’s not God’s will it will not work for good anyway!

I’m grateful for all of the Godly examples I have in my life. I’m grateful to all who have been drenched in sweat, travailed in tears, and deceased their flesh to do a work in the great Kingdom. I ask you to do the same. Thank those that work so hard for God and go unnoticed because they want it that way. Thank those that do the work of God for all the right reasons, not because they desire to be in leadership or to hear their own accolades. Most likely, those saints have no timeline and they are the Godly examples we so admire because of the hard lessons God has guided them through. They are the ones with wisdom, they are the ones that are old in the spirit, and they probably have some good advice if you just seek it. The hard part is actually getting past our pride, hearing it, listening to it, and living it.

Was I rushing my life? Oh, yeah! I had a plan and I was on a timeline … but, God’s grace and mercy brought me back where He told me to be not once, but two times. I finally feel I’m walking in His will and I also know that I don’t know everything and I don’t need to! With each breathe I take I remember it is only possible because of the first. I can finally exhale and it feels great!

Keep breathing and seeking; God will reveal and answer all of our unanswered questions someday, but it doesn’t have to be today!