We have all heard the expression, "my, you are looking good.....for your age."  Yes, meaningful people actually say that!

Face to face! What they are meaning is debatable! But, we must give a positive twist to these and other cutting remarks. I just dismiss them much like Jesus did, when the Pharisees and scribes (and even those who crucified Him) defied His teachings: "Father, forgive them, for they don't know what they are (saying)." 

As we draw this week to a close in New Orleans, it is apparent I have aged and grown much.The teaming with Tokyo and Gentilly Church Teams has been remarkable. Unbelieveable how the Lord has molded us together into one 'force' here in this madhouse. But there are so many people who need the 'saving grace of our Lord'.

We have witnessed the Lord do incredible things, and a bond of true love and fellowship has emerged.  And I can verify "I have aged this week."  I am not sure I have done it well, but I have aged. But in a good way. I believe we all have grown so much: Grown in the love for each other; for the people we have encountered; grown in accepting them where they are and trusting God to move in their hearts to nudge them along. We saw many folks who were not aging well, for sure. But getting back to aging well...our orignial thought!

Don't you agree when we step out in faith and attempt "great things for God", we age well? When we 'trust in the Lord with all our heart and trust Him to lead us' we grow and in our growing we age or mature in the Lord? George Vaillant in his book "Aging Well", quotes Henri Amiel in 1874: "To know how to grow old is the master-work of wisdom, and one of the most difficult chapters in the great art of living." He continues by saying, " we all need models to show us how to live beyond retirement, even to the end, with joy." That is aging well, I would say.

Aging, we are told, can mean any of these things; decay; seasonal change; or continued development right up to the moment of death or all of the above. We have a choice in these areas though.  Some choose just to 'decay' and give up on life. Some may say 'well, it is my time and there is nothing I can do about it'.  Soon, they are being lowered into the grave. Then, there are the ones that seem to be a model of aging well. Remember Moses, Joshua and Caleb? Wow, what examples of great men of God aging well. Agabus and others in the New Testament seemed to have done the same.

In American history, we read of many heroes who have made it to 80-90 or even 100 and beyond. We have many of them living right here in Minden. I work and serve with many, but there are many others around here. Aging well to them means 'just keep on living right, serving others, and trusting God.

Don't you like the spirit of the Sunday School teacher who has been teaching for many years, but is anxious and willing to attend 'teacher training seminars' to learn better how to teach and be effective?  I do! I think we all are learners; some better students than others. And what about the 90 year old that buys a new computer to learn to e-mail distant family members? And the tweeter who just turned 80, but is in touch with countless others half his age? Yes, aging well means to continually have our minds renewed by the power of the Spirit of God. We must accept the changes that ultimately come with aging, but we must also realize there is still much to do, even at varing stages of life. It is not time to curl up on the 'couch of death and say goodbye to the world.'

Few farmers can do at 80 what they could do at 55. Few football players can perfrom as well as Bret Farve does at 40. But don't we all agree, he has aged well and to be leading in so many categories as a quarterback in the NFL, amazing! Remember Sachel Paige, the great "old" baseball pitcher that just kept on playing in the majors?  He aged well, I would say. There are limits that aging automatically brings, but there are many areas of life that are strengthened with age.
Studies show spirituality plays a big role in the lives of many folks that 'keep on living right up to the last minute.' 

Doesn't that encouage you? It does me. Our faith system in so very important as believers. It gives us the inner strength too keep going on in life, realizing the "Lord is not ready for us yet to enter the gates of heaven."  So, like the writer of Hebrews admonished his friends, "....let us strip off those things that holds us back (hinders us), and especially those sins that wrap themselves so tightly around our feet and trip us up; and let us run with patience the particular race that God has set before us." (Heb 12:1). Don't you like the concept of all these aging joggers running to the very end of their lives? I do!

In doing so, we shall age well, regardless of the chronological years we may have accumulated. You have known folks (as I have) who were "old folks at 30" and then some that were eternally young in their thinking and habits of serving others in Christ's name.  As we see this new year fast slipping through our fingers, may this be our prayer for the rest of the year: "Lord, help me to age well, serving You!