Growing older amplifies the reality that change is inescapable and control is something of an illusion.
For disciples of Jesus it bids us recognise the difference between death and dying; that Jesus has overcome death, and that dying is only a shadow.
It also bids us look to the one where certainty, comfort, and peace can be found.
From Jared Wilson:
As you age, it seems like everything is passing you by. The world isn’t made for you any longer. Which is why you can become more susceptible to anger as you age. You feel left out, forgotten. Everything keeps changing at a rapid pace, but you are slowing down.
Isn’t it a wonder that the Lord keeps pace with you? You may be long passed up by everything and everyone around you, but he won’t leave you behind.
The truth is, as Isaiah 46:3 tells us, he’s been carrying us all along, even when we felt more strong, more sure of ourselves. Sorry, “Footprints” – it’s not just in our suffering that we are sustained by God, but for all our life. We just sense our need to be carried more keenly in our frailty.
And this is one of the blessings of age, I think – getting more in touch with the one who’s hand has never left our own. But you don’t have to be getting older to recognize this. You just have to rely less on yourself and more and more on him. You just have to stop leaning on your own understanding. We can call this becoming an “old soul Christian.”
An old soul Christian is one who repents of idolizing innovation. An old soul Christian stops looking for the “silver bullet” for discipleship, church growth, personal spirituality. An old soul Christian drinks deeply from God’s word, because while the grass is withering and the flowers are fading, God’s word never changes. An old soul Christian spends more time in prayer than opining on social media, because he has the eager ear of the One whose estimation matters most.
An old soul Christian may die young, but it’s okay, because he gave himself up for dead a long time ago (Gal. 2:20). He finds his contentment resting, young or old, in the bosom of the One who brought him into being.
Life is not about being in control or asserting your ambitions. It’s about knowing the One who made you. Because, at the end, nobody can go with you into the end but him. He is both “the founder and the perfecter of our faith” (Heb. 12:2a).
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