.............................
As Our
Time On Earth Grow More And More Short
Beginning in Endings: End of Years,
Rebirth of Joy!
How
could we have this completely wrong?
By Phil Ware
Two Minute Meditations
Special Note: These thoughts are shared in dedication to
Ray Butts, a longtime servant of God who has blessed our Heartlight.org and VerseoftheDay.com ministries and literally
hundreds of thousands of people a day because of his quiet proof reading and
corrections to our articles and devotionals.
Thank you for your faithfulness to the King, to the
Kingdom, and to your precious wife Doris.
I know you will find several things to correct after this
goes live, but it wouldn't have been a surprise if you had seen it sooner!
“In the last days, God said, I will pour out my Spirit
upon all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see
visions, and your old men will dream dreams” (Acts 2:17 NLT).
Several years ago at our Christmas candlelight service —
led mostly by our children — one of our older members led a special prayer.
It took him a little time and a little help to walk up a
few steps and make his way to the microphone. As he did, one of our younger
children whispered loudly, "Is that
God?"
No, Joe McKissick isn't God, but he is certainly one of
God's great servants. Joe has been a missionary to Africa, preaching minister,
prison minister, visitation leader to shut-ins, and a pioneer in gerontology
and ministry with older adults.
For his
eightieth birthday, Joe took a dangerous mission trip back to Africa — Ghana,
Nigeria, and Kenya.
A few
years later, he and his wife, Mary Lou, and many of their children and
grandchildren went back to Africa on a mission trip together.
Yes, Joe
is battling health issues, but my oh my, how he has lived passionately for God
in the second half of life!
We live in a time when politics — whether church or
national politics — often pits young against old in a polarization that surely
must break the heart of the Father of all children no matter their age.
Idealism
and great dreams for the Kingdom are reserved for the young. Defense of the
status quo is the expected position of the aged.
Taking
risks is for the young and foolhardy. Being careful is the expected lifestyle
of those who are nearing retirement.
Such crass oversimplifications should be beneath us as
God's people. But we fuel our church debates based on these ideas and like
Lemmings, many of us live up to the expectations of our prejudices.
Yet for
a people filled with the Spirit, all of God's sons and daughters, young and
old, should have visions, dreams, and prophetic expectations of God's great
work in their time.
It was
part of Joel's prophetic promise of a people who were called into existence by
the death, burial, resurrection, exaltation, and pouring out of the Spirit by
the Lord Jesus Christ (Acts 2:16-21).
So when is the last time you've heard anyone talk about
the idealism, vision, and dreams of the older folks in Jesus' family?
We sure
see a lot of advertisements about the luxuries of retirement.
We've
seen commercials of "mature" couples sitting in bathtubs in the middle
of fields of flowers at sunset celebrating the new potentialities for intimacy
through a special little pill.
Where
are the expectations of doing great things for the Kingdom?
If you listen to the talk of most folks — whether it is
about themselves or about others who are aging — the focus is rarely on much
more than finishing a bucket list before waiting for the decline of aging to
set in.
So few
live to expect the best of their life to happen in the second half of their
life.
Too few
live to make a Kingdom impact in the fourth quarter of life and most who are
young seem reluctant to believe it is possible, much less to be expected!
At first
glance, the Bible seems to even suggest this pessimism about the second half of
life is true... but that's only at first glance.
Yes,
Ecclesiastes ends with the depressing portrayal of aging with the lights going
out in the eyes, the sounds fading out to the ears, and the body basically
falling apart (Ecclesiastes
12:1-7).
Add to
this the parade of great Bible heroes who blow it in the last few years of
their lives and leadership, and you are left with a pretty dismal view of
living for the Kingdom of heaven in the last half of life.
Contrast this with the promise of Joel (in Acts
2) and the beginning of its fulfillment even before Jesus is born
with Simeon and Anna as Jesus is presented in the Temple on his eighth day of
life:
“Now there was a man in Jerusalem called Simeon, who was
righteous and devout. He was waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the
Holy Spirit was upon him. It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that
he would not die before he had seen the Lord's Christ. Moved by the Spirit, he
went into the temple courts. When the parents brought in the child Jesus to do
for him what the custom of the Law required, Simeon took him in his arms and
praised God, saying: "Sovereign Lord, as you have promised, you now
dismiss your servant in peace. For my eyes have seen your salvation, which you
have prepared in the sight of all people, a light for revelation to the
Gentiles and for glory to your people Israel" (Luke
2:25-32 NIV).
“There was also a prophetess, Anna, the daughter of
Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was very old; she had lived with her
husband seven years after her marriage, and then was a widow until she was
eighty-four. She never left the temple but worshiped night and day, fasting and
praying. Coming up to them at that very moment, she gave thanks to God and
spoke about the child to all who were looking forward to the redemption of
Jerusalem” (Luke
2:36-38 NIV).
Let's
notice three things in particular about these two precious aging servants who
experience the greatest moments of their lives near the end of their journey.
First, Simeon knew God intimately after his long years as
God's "righteous and devout"servant.
The Holy
Spirit was the fire that lit the way for this great soul.
Luke emphasizes that "the
Holy Spirit was upon" Simeon, that God had revealed through "the Holy Spirit" that Simeon
would not die until he had seen Yahweh's Messiah, and that Simeon was "moved by the Spirit" to go
to the Temple that very day.
Rather
than the years dimming Simeon's passion for seeing God's great work done, the
Holy Spirit had made him more passionately full of expectation in his waiting
and more in tune with the Holy Spirit.
Now before you wash away the applicability
of this powerful example, remember what Paul said:
“Therefore
we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are
being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving
for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on
what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is
unseen is eternal (2
Corinthians 4:16-18 NIV).
Shouldn't we expect more spiritually as
life draws us closer to being in the very presence of God?
Shouldn't the ways and leading and voice
of the Holy Spirit be more familiar to us? Isn't that something to value as we
grow older — being able to discern the ways of the Spirit in the middle of all
the distraction and fluff and challenge of our temporal world?
Second, Simeon
expected to see the face of the Savior as his time on earth grew more and more
short.
Luke tells us that Simeon lived with the conviction that "he would not die before he had seen the
Lord's Christ."
While
our experience can't match Simeon's in exactly the same way, as we realize that
our time to go home and be with God grows closer, shouldn't we live with the
conviction that we are going to see our Father face-to-face!
John
says it beautifully:
“How
great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called
children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us
is that it did not know him. Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what
we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he appears, we
shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is” (1
John 3:1-2 NIV).
How
about that for a reason for us to be passionate as we grow older!
We are
God's children and we are drawing ever closer to the time we are going to see
our Father face-to-face, fully able to see him in all his glory because we are
going to be like him!
As the old hymn says it, "Each step I take just leads me closer home." Shouldn't
that fuel the servant of God with passion and fire?
Third, notice that Anna joins the angels who proclaimed the
good news to the shepherds and is one of the very first evangelists to proclaim
the birth of Jesus and its importance to those looking for real hope in a
broken world.
Sharing
Jesus has no age boundaries or gender specifics.
Many of
the greatest evangelists I know are seasoned women of faith, who use Bible
correspondence, who teach English through reading the Bible on mission trips,
and who serve on mission trips in an endless variety of ways.
Others
are the Kingdom's most powerful prayer warriors as they pray and fast for the
health of the church, the vitality of our missions, and the needs of God's
people.
So why
do we dream of the retirement of God's saints when God longs us to yearn for
the "on-firement" that comes from the Holy Spirit alive in us,
equipping us and empowering us to serve in ways we couldn't when we were
younger and busy with kids and too unseasoned to always know what is most
important?
So, how about we finish with where we
began, but this time, let's do more than read the words, let's expect them to
become true... in us... among us... and because of we believe the power of
God's Spirit does not choose to be limited by age or gender:
“In the
last days, God said, I will pour out my Spirit upon all people. Your sons and
daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, and your old men will
dream dreams” (Acts
2:17 NLT).
Phil Ware has authored 11 years of daily devotionals, including VerseoftheDay.com, read by 500,000 people a day. He works with churches in transition
with Interim
Ministry Partners and for the
past 21+ years, he has been editor and president of HEARTLIGHT Magazine, author
of VerseoftheDay.com, God's
Holy Fire (on the Holy
Spirit), and aYearwithJesus.com. Phil has also authored four
books, daily devotionals on each of the four gospels. (Visit the Author's
Website)
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