Staying Young

Abraham was 100 years old when it happened to him.  Moses was 80 years old when it happened to him.  What happened?  At 100 God called Abraham to be a father.  At 80 God called Moses to lead his people out of Israel.  Imagine becoming a father at the age of 100.  My word, my grandkids wear me out now when I am with them and I am only in my 50’s.  My worst nightmare would be to have another child at this point in my life.  I have grown accustomed to the way my life is without children in the home.  And imagine starting a whole new career at 80.  What would an 80 year old know about computers and social media and all of the new-fangled electronics that are used today in the workplace?  The workplace would have to seem to be a foreign place.  And who at 80 would want to be starting a whole new career.  Too much work!  And yet Abraham embraced fatherhood and Moses embraced leading Israel.

While these two men were “old” physically and in number of years, they certainly weren’t “old” in the way they thought and acted.  I would dare to say that one of the things that kept Abraham and Moses young was the faith that the Lord had authored and perfected within them.  These two men had grown to the point where their faith had become so deep and wide that they began to see their lives and the world they lived in, not with their own eyes, but with God’s eyes.  They reached the point where they were more interested in what the Lord wanted than what they wanted.  It was indeed, all about HIM!  And so they were able to put off to the side and out of the equation any thoughts they might have had that were tied to time and age.

So does faith help keep us young, and if so, how so?  When Jacob was administering the rationing of food for Pharaoh there came a point where he introduced his father, Jacob, to Pharaoh.  Pharaoh asked Jacob how old he was.  The secret to staying young in heart and living life to the full well into “old” physical age is found in Jacob’s response.  He said, “The years of my pilgrimage are a 130.  My years are few and difficult, and they do not equal the years of the pilgrimage of my fathers.”  Jacob didn’t look at his life in terms of numbers and age like most of us do.  Most of us look at our lives in terms of life in this world and then we die and that is it.  Hence we mark the number of years we have “lived”.  Jacob, due to faith in the redemption that was his in the promised Savior, looked at his life in terms of eternity—eternity comprising life here in time and then in glory with the Lord where there is no time.  Time when compared to forever and ever is a pinpoint on a “timeline”.  Thus Jacob says that his years, even though they are 130 in time, are by comparison to eternity, few. 

Secondly, by faith Jacob looked at his life as a pilgrimage, a journey if you will; he saw himself walking with God in time and then in eternity.  Life wasn’t about how long one “lived” but about being in fellowship with the Lord forever.  Jacob’s life was all about growing in the knowledge and wisdom of God.  His life, like that of his father, Isaac, and his grandfather, Abraham, was all about his relationship with God and serving Him and not himself.  Faith had so shaped these men that they saw the world from God’s point of view rather than from a worldly point of view.

In a sense, faith did keep Moses and Abraham young.  (Most Christians, truth be told figure on retiring some day and letting the younger Christians in the church take over.  It’s the “I took my turn, now it’s yours” attitude.)   These two people of faith accomplished great things for the Lord in their “old” age without old age defining them and limiting them.  It’s good that we be reminded of this, because all the indicators are that the church is aging—that young people are not going to be as active and participatory in the life of the church.  And so while the church may have people who are “old” when it comes to age that doesn’t translate into us acting as if we are old.  We could even go so far as to say that our best years and the best years of the church and (Insert the name of your congregation here) are yet to come!