Well, the weekend has passed, and all birthday celebrations are done. Mom turned 86 and her sister turned 90. We had a great time with my extended family, many I’ve never met. Yet, I made sure they will all remember me. As the day wrapped up, my aunt said, “I don’t feel any different…” but this morning she said, “I’m feeling my age!”
This must be what it’s like to grow up and feel the getting older years behind you. I feel every year of the seven decade periods I’ve lived from the ‘50s through the present.
An early morning thought came to mind. How old was King David when he penned, or collected, certain song. Was he young? Old? In between? Did he feel his age, or was he spry and invincible.
It was David that penned the words, and it’s obvious he’s writing from elder years:
“I have been young, and now am old;
yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken,
nor his seed begging bread.”
Psalms 37:25 (KJV)
But, from the perspective of a younger man, he wrote about his challenge to life. You can almost feel the bragging of a young man’s perspective.
“For by thee I have run through a troop;
and by my God have I leaped over a wall.”
Psalms 18:29 (KJV)
This Morning
Today, I realize, I’ve felt every year of my life. They show by my accomplishments and failures. Mountaintops and valleys. Easy paths and grueling trails. Retrospectively, I wouldn’t change a thing. I think.
How about you? If you could reboot your life to a younger age, what changes would you wish for? Then, forecast that life toward the end, would you be any more satisfied than you are right now? It’s impossible to know. Why? You have to experience that rebooted life to know what the pathways and experiences would show you.
Perhaps the better idea is to simply be at ease with where you are, who you turned out to be, but don’t stop trying to improve your lot in life. Contentment when life is imperfect is a hard place to be. As I watch those older than I, a thought comes to mind.
Again, it was David who said…
“For his anger endureth but a moment;
in his favour is life:
weeping may endure for a night,
but joy cometh in the morning.”
Psalms 30:5 (KJV)
Don’t live in the night of despair. Fresh change is available every morning. David’s son, Solomon understood it like this:
“This I recall to my mind, therefore have I hope.
It is of the LORD’S mercies that we are not consumed,
because his compassions fail not.
They are new every morning:
great is thy faithfulness.”
Lamentations 3:21-23 (KJV)