Greetings in the Strong Name of Jesus!

Getting Older - Proverbs 16:31 - “Gray hair is a crown of glory; it is gained by living a godly life.”  NLT

Something happened as I was living life - I woke up one day and discovered I was getting older.  Try as hard as I could, this thing is just happening.  I have no control over it.  I can’t take a pill to stop it.  I can’t have surgery to stop it.  It is just happening - I’m aging.  Don’t laugh...we are all in the same boat.

I watch with interest and amusement as various TV shows help us see all the wonderful discoveries being used to bring youth back to those who have suddenly realized the same thing I have realized - they are getting older.  They tuck things here and cut things there.  They evacuate things and inject things trying to eliminate wrinkles from this place and the other.  When it is all said and done, some of those procedures turn out pretty good and others turn out...well, uh,...not so good.  After all these things are done, guess what?  They are still aging and one day will have to have more tucks and cuts and injections and.........  Today’s scripture is a great encouragement to me.  The gray which is beginning to invade my hairline is nothing that hasn’t happened to millions of people through the years.  It is not be feared, it is not to be cursed.  It seems, instead to be something to be welcomed.  The writer of the Proverbs tells us our gray hair is a “crown of glory”!  Why in the world would he say that?

Here are some things I am learning about aging.  One, it happens to everyone.  It’s true.  Two, there really are some advantages.  I can eat cheaper in most restaurants, I can sleep cheaper in many hotels, I can buy less at the grocery store because I now only eat twice a day. Sometimes I even get a discount on some airlines. Finally, I get a break.  There are some other advantages, because I have gray hair, there are some younger folks who actually ask for my opinion and advice.  It is nice to be able to love on grandchildren, spoil them rotten, and then leave.  Let the kids deal with it after we have  gone home.

Well, many of these thoughts are fun and funny to think about, but the Word is very serious about this aging thing.  I believe God wants us to embrace, not curse, a very natural part of life...aging.  Aging puts us closer to the thing we should long for, Heaven.  Aging puts us in a position to be able to mentor the young with the backdrop of life as the perspective.  Aging puts us in a place to spend more time in prayer for the church and it’s members.  Aging puts us in a place where we can encourage the downtrodden, because we have been there and survived.  We can hold up the hands of our pastors in return for the days they held ours.  We can return the blessings we have received to others who need to be blessed.  Gray hair is a crown of glory.  The aging have seen the hand of the Lord and now we can remind the younger of His great and awesome deeds.  I pray they see in our gray hair, not the wrinkles in our faces and the fear of growing older, but rather the joy of serving Almighty God for 60, 70, or 80 plus years.

I know there is another side of aging, too.  Every day it seems a little harder to simply live.  It takes longer to stand up, sit down, or walk around.  Our knees hurt.  Our hips hurt.  Our hands hurt.  It is easy to get angry over this thing called the A.G.E. disease.  Keep this mind - God sees and God knows.  Even in our old age it is especially important to remember and reflect on how much God cares for you.  "I will never leave you nor forsake you...."  Those words came from Jesus Himself.  He loved you when and He loves you now and He will be with you to the very end.  Remain faithful.  Remain steadfast.  Remain in the Living Hope only the Christ follower can understand and live in.

You are loved and prayed for,
Pastor Roger