“Aged” in the Harvest

So what is it about age? I have a friend who has been forced to change careers. The biggest problem is that he's over 55. This is not the place to be an adventurer, nor are companies looking for old men. In fact, believe it or not, many churches wouldn't even look at me because of my age. Fifty-five is ancient and old fashioned and not “positioned” for the future….except for a future of nursing homes and death.

Jeff and I went to the Acts 29 thing in St. Louis where thirty-something, spiked hair and dark, plastic framed glasses are marks of the new Christian intelligentsia and the modern, connected, friend of lost humanity. The two problems I have here are as follows: First, it took me forever in the 70's (19, not 18) to lose my plastic dark-rimmed glasses. I can't believe they’re back. Talk about unfair. Then, who said, insinuated, or otherwised, that 55 is old?

I know that I'm trapped in the "body of sin," and subject to its decay. But 55, or 60, or 70 is still not old spiritually. Adam and those guys lived well into their 900s! Oh, someone might postulate and interpolate that 55 equals what they would have looked like at 550, but not in terms of experience. I would love to have 550 years of experience walking with the Lord. This 55 years is great, honestly, and so much so that you couldn't pay me money to go back to 20. I love this, and as hard as our outward circumstances might seem and regardless of how I feel the challenge, at 55 I feel like I'm finally getting my "legs" following Christ. But 55 is still being a baby compared to 900. Imagine the guys sitting around the fire at night. There's a guy who is 921, and another who is 879 and a couple of youngsters who are in their 400s. And there you sit at 70. The baby of the group.

Actually, when we read Job we might get the ages wrong. Job, we guess, lived after the flood but before Abraham. People back then were still living 500 years. So Job's friends come and exhaust themselves doing Satan's work to destroy Job and finally that young "whipper-snapper" Elihu speaks up. So, how old was he. He said he was young, but we think of “young” through our grid. If Job and his friends were 300 +, Elihu could have been 80 and still have been a "kid" in comparison.

So I'm refusing to get "old." I'm resolved to the fact that my body is going down, but I'm planning to live forever with Christ, so I'll just deal with that on the outside and be me (+Jesus) on the inside. I want my experience on this earth to be in my eternal Savior, not in worrying about the body of death and getting an ancient earthly culturally locked mindset. The "earth game" says I have to accept hardened arteries, but not a hardened attitude. If getting old means you have to put up with younger people thinking you're ancient, so be it, but we serve an "ancient" master, who is younger of heart than we can imagine. And, the Harvest is on, so we run with spirit and joy and hope and strength, not in ourselves, but in Christ. I'm glad I'm 55, but even more that I belong to the Ancient of Days and can use all of this experience to follow Him in the Harvest.