I got some bad news at the doctor’s last week. No, I’m not dying of cancer; the nurse said I measured five feet, ten and a quarter inches. 5’10.25”! I used to be six feet tall. What happened? I suppose my thirty plus years carrying a mail satchel should get the most blame, but still, only 5’10, what a disappointment! Can I get the doc to inject some of that artificial cartilage into my backbones?
We all know that getting older offers its challenges, but sometimes my prayer to God is, “Do not cast me off in the time of old age; do not forsake me when my strength fails” (Psalm 71:9 NKJV).
Another negative about the passing of time is the general deterioration of spirituality among the masses. The Apostle Paul told Timothy, “But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come” (2 Tim. 3:1), and “But evil men and impostors will grow worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived” (3:13).
Those are not very encouraging truths to dwell on, but all is not lost for the child of God. One key to lifting ourselves up above the physical and spiritual decline is Psalm 73:25-26, “Whom have I in heaven but You? And there is none upon earth that I desire besides You. My flesh and my heart fail; but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.” Of course, we’re not doing the lifting, we’re relying on God to be our strength.
In Paul’s comments on the physical part of Christianity, what he calls “earthen vessels,” he says, “But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us. We are hard-pressed on every side, yet not crushed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed — always carrying about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body” (2 Corinthians 4:7-10).
That’s a whole lot of heavy burdens that faithful Christians deal with, but he concludes with this encouraging thought, “Therefore we do not lose heart. Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal” (4:16-18).
So, if you’re an inch shorter than what you were at age twenty, fear not! Look to our Almighty God. Whom do we have in Heaven but Him! By the way, that works for you if you’re not twenty and still growing.
Jeff Greene, minister for the South Stokes Church of Christ