Focus on your future and not your age.
Some people are obsessed with their age. They seem to focus on the idea that they are not as young as they were. Others go even further and make regular comments about being old.
Of course we are all getting older. Each year we experience another birthday and a one-year increase in our age.
Yet, we live in a youth obsessed culture. Some people believe that one is at a disadvantage to look his age.
Some people do move from decade to decade gracefully. Others do so under whining and protest. Many live with the denial of aging.
Church leaders can model something powerful before the church in such a culture.
Embrace life fully.
Stop talking about your age and start talking more about newness in Christ. We really can be full of life when we focus on the one who gives us life (John 10:10).
Consider the message that you are sending the church through your teaching/preaching.
Do I speak of age as if getting older is downhill? Are the examples, stories, and illustrations I use in messages typically from the pop culture of 20 or 30 years ago? Do I regularly bemoan the fact that I am getting old?
Affirm in messages examples of people of various ages who are alive and engaged in life and ministry.
In a youth obsessed culture, it may be particularly helpful for people to hear stories of ministry being done by people who are older.
Cling to the Cross when life is difficult for you as a church leader.
Discipleship, after all, is a ministry of suffering (John 16:33, Luke 9:23). When life is difficult, we are forced to admit we are dependent on God and others. This is exactly what we are called to be as Christians. We are stripped away of what we have depended on and are called to rely on Christ.
Continue to grow.
I remain an eternal student, incomplete and unfulfilled, gazing at a full range of Mount Everests of the mind that remain unclaimed. …. Faith is the ground I stand on, the air I breathe, the thread of life that connects me to continuing life with God in eternity. — Malcolm Boyd, age 78
Thank you Jim Martin for this excellent piece today, Ministry Inside.133 . Malcolm Boyd, age 78’s
mention of mountains resonated in me to make a reply about another mountain where Moses received the “Law”. It was observed that Moses had three basic careers, with each last for about a 40 year period, more or less.
You are invited of course to join the Moses Club.
MOSES CLUB
Please join.
Moses found himself in Midian running for his life for killing an Egyptian.
That is Career 1, about 40 years.
Moses heard God calling from a burning bush that was not consumed. He found himself back in Egypt to complete God’s instruction to “bring the people back here” ( to Horeb).
Exodus 3:12 He said, “But I will be with you, and this shall be the sign for you, that I have sent you: when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall serve God on this mountain.”
ESV and Amen! He had a wife and two sons: career 2 , about 40 years.
Ten Commandments and 40 years later:
Moses went up on Mount Nebo to look into the Promised land and was not seen again,
burial by God. End of Career 3 . Age now about 120. . .
In 4 years , and about 8 months I will be at Career 3 start.
God is already training me, but I don’t know for what!
I have asked him to put me in the right place at the right time, and my life has really changed.
God is the leader of the Moses Club. Once you catch on to what you are going to do in response ,
you give all your reports to Him. You may recommend this club to anyone, even if you yourself do not join.
We may meet again in this life, yet! May the Lord bless and keep you.
In the Love of 1Corinthians 13
Richard Piper
12/14/2012 © Richard Piper 2012
Reproductions in whole or in part is permissible with proper credit.
Update to this writing is that I have 3 years and 10 months to train for the third “career”.