October 2010
So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new! . . . Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, since God is making his appeal through us; we entreat you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. (2 Corinthians 5:17,20)
When we talk about "feeling our age" (as I seem to do more and more often), we usually mean it as a negative experience or feeling; the assumption being that we are somehow meant to perpetually feel younger than we actually are. Feeling our age, therefore, is an unwanted and usually ignored reminder that we are in fact, aging. Of course it is totally unrealistic to feel otherwise—what age could we feel except the age that we are? But that is not how we are wired; instead, we hold tenaciously to our youth in many different ways—refusing to acknowledge reality, for fear that to do so would immediately render us decrepit and incapacitated. However, there is actually no need for such mental self-trickery. Because, in fact, we can be born anew in Christ whenever we deign to meet him and discover his current plan for our lives. And as I love to say, God is never finished with us. So no matter what our real age, our portion of God's work remains to be done every day.
I have been reading some daily thoughts in a monthly publication called the Monastic Way, and I want to share a few of its ideas from August: If you are not where you thought you would be at this stage of life, you are, nevertheless, where God is waiting to find you. (8/24)
We don't fall into ruts in life: we dig them for ourselves. We settle in, we withdraw from other people, we stop trying new foods, new friends, new places, new books, new ideas, new events. We just curl up within ourselves. We stop trying. Or more to the point, we stop living long before we die. And in the doing of it, without realizing it, perhaps, we stop the search for God. "If you love everything," F. Dostoevsky says, "you will perceive the divine mystery in all things. (8/23)
Therefore the bottom line is to expect to feel your age, but do not allow aging to cause you to stop living. And above all, do not forget for a minute that you are still engaged in the work of making disciples as ambassadors for Christ. That is the one job from which we never retire.
May God bless you and keep you,
Paul+