I’ve known my physical endurance has slowly been limiting.
We all reach that point of life and health when you can’t do what you once did.
Telling yourself to recognize the process is something hard to do.
Reality? You can work past your limits and pay the consequences.
As new parents, we learned to adapt.
Kids require a lot of attention and energy.
Then they moved on, and we adapted to a kidless zone.
But now we are facing the limits of an aging endurance
That has absolutely nothing to do with our kids.
It’s about aging, aching, and not having what we once had.
Sleeping less than ever before.
I awake at 3:30. Shhh! Don’t wake the neighbors.
Or the dogs! They will require my attention if I do.
I talked to someone recently a few years younger than me.
Working hard to reach a pivot point requires 20 hours per day.
“I started climbing this tree, and there’s nothing left to do but climb.”
Or some such words. I don’t know how it’s done.
After yesterday, my body aches, and my mind is worn out.
I pull over to the side of life’s road and enjoy a power nap! Twice!
There’s a picture of elder vitality I often return to when I think of aging.
One of the twelve spies sent by Moses. Bring back a report of our lands.
Ten said, “No way!” But Joshua and Caleb encourage forward momentum.
Then Caleb quieted the people before Moses, and said,
“Let us go up at once and take possession, for we are well able to overcome it.”
(Numbers 13:30 NKJV)
God keeps the nation wandering because the people believed the negative report.
God had a different report for Caleb…
But My servant Caleb, because he has a different spirit in him and has followed Me fully,
I will bring into the land where he went, and his descendants shall inherit it.
(Numbers 14:24 NKJV)
Maybe this is a unique number to think through—one in twelve.
Not everyone is forward-thinking enough to dismiss the struggles at a younger age.
But consider Caleb’s next stage of life.
Forty-five years later, and now he’s an aging man, the Promised Land is gained. Caleb is not done. He reminds Joshua of God’s promise to him. He’s now 85, “…as strong this day as on the day that Moses sent me…as my strength was then, now my strength is for war…Give me this mountain!” (Joshua 14:6-13)
What a testimony! Knowing the future would soon be the present, Caleb kept himself ready for that day!
I’m wondering if it’s not too late to change the inevitable. Surely, I pray that when I reach 85, I will be like Caleb. Give Me This Mountain!
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