The Weekly Epistle 10/21/20

You know you’re getting old when…
 
A couple of years ago, my wife and I were eating breakfast at IHOP and noticed a section in the menu for 55 and over.  They were cheaper.  I ordered my breakfast from the 55 plus section and the young waitress took down my order.  I asked her if she wanted to see proof that I was over 55 and she said, “No, you’re good,” meaning she had enough proof she needed.  Ouch! 
 
You know you’re getting old when “you wake up to snap, crackle, and pop, and it’s not your breakfast cereal.”  Or, “When you have to put your birth year in and you have to keep scrolling backward.”  Or when you hurt yourself while sleeping.  Or when you refer to your knees as good and bad instead of left and right.  Ok, I could go on.
 
For some odd reason, my turning 60 bothered me more than any other birthday.  As I work through that on a personal level, I have been encouraged on many levels.  As my son-in-law put it, “You are about to be showered with love.”  And that I was!  From the family to my church family, my heart was greatly blessed.  Thank you!  You encouraged my heart!  Your kindness touched me in a meaningful way!  
 
There have been a couple of other insights that have renewed my soul.  Isaiah said, “Even to your old age and gray hairs I am he,” the Lord says.  “I am he who will sustain you.  I have made you and I will carry you; I will sustain you and I will rescue you” (Isaiah 46:4).  Clearly, God will give grace for every need.  He will carry us throughout all ages and seasons of life.  
 
The longer we live, the more we can speak of the sustaining power of God’s grace.  Aging is the accumulation of sharing more stories of God’s faithfulness. 
 
I believe that sharing stories with each other will be an activity in heaven.  We might even reminisce of prayers answered, God’s work in our lives, and start to connect the dots of times when God intervened.  
 
Church, our citizenship is in heaven.  We do await a Savior who will transform our earthly bodies to glorious ones.  As D.A. Carson put it, “I’m not suffering from anything that a good resurrection can’t fix.”  Imagine a body with no aches and pains, no infections, no disease, no allergies, no fatigue every settling in, and a body not restricted by time or space.  Oh! That will be glory!
 
Keep your eyes on the bright future Christ has for you!  Be strengthened in hope!  Never lose heart!  To live is Christ!  Determine to finish well!
 
I thank God for you.  Blessings, Pastor Brian