I Don't Want to Get Old!

In the last six months of my life I have seen a lot of transition! For the past fifteen years, I have pastored a church that I poured everything that I had into...my time, energy, money, resources, thoughts and love. Six months ago I started a new season of my life; still in the ministry, but now pastoring pastors...loving them and walking with them through challenges and opportunities. It's been a huge transition! I have also walked through (and have come out successfully) some significant health challenges and have learned how to pace myself and lay down the stresses of life. Actually, it's been a relief learning that I don't have to solve everybody's problems and everybody's issues aren't my concern...wish I had learned that years ago! In addition to the transition that my family and I have walked through, I also recently celebrated my 49th birthday. It was during this time that I heard the Lord clearly speak to me that I was at the "halftime" and beginning the second half of my life. That's cool, because I have learned that in life, we go from survival to success to significance. It's during the second half of your life that you focus on significance!

Sitting back and taking a lot of things into consideration...I have come into this realization: I don't want to get old! Now, please notice what I said and didn't say. I didn't say that I don't want to get older...I have no choice in that matter, I will get older. Nothing that I do or say can stop me from getting older, it's a fact of life! I honestly don't mind getting older...I just don't want to get old! I don't want to become old in my perspective, my habits, my choices or my outlook on life itself. In fact, I've been around people who are physically older, but have a youthful and fresh approach to life and I've been around people who are younger and have an old approach to life. I know one man who is a lot younger than I am and he walks around with his shoulders down, when you walk in his office; it looks like an old man's office...I don't want to be like that!!!!

Psalms 103:5 says "I will enrich your life and renew your youth like the eagle's". The concept of renewing your youth literally means that there is something that God will cause you to retain. I love that! As you get older, the temptation is to lose a sense of youthfulness. Not immaturity, but an outlook that is optimistic, expectant and ready for change. I don't want to get set in my ways. I don't want everything to be the same. I want the fresh and new things of life and of God. But why an eagle? An eagle can fly up to 10,000 feet and can move along at speeds of 30-35 miles per hour. As you get older, the temptation is to "come down to earth" and to "slow down". When you come down, you lose a perspective of 10,000 feet. You see everything close up and it all becomes about you. God help us to enlarge our vision and to broaden our horizons. The older I get, the larger I want to see life. It's really not all about me.

I recently heard somebody say, "Oh, I wish I were 25 again"...not me! When I was 25, I was dumb and broke! I'm glad to have matured, settled down, focused and ready to move into the second half of my life. Obviously, I don't know what's around the corner in terms of the challenges, blessings and opportunities that life may hold for me, but I make a determination right now that I will fly at 10,000 feet; I'm going to slow down, enjoy the blessed life, be everything that God has called me to be and keep a youthful, optimistic view of who I am and who I am becoming. I have too much to live for! There are so many things that I haven't done yet, places that I haven't seen yet, people that I haven't met, sermons that I haven't preached, books that I haven't written...life is to be lived young - even when you're getting older!