On The Occasion of My 60th Birthday
Welp, I turned 60 years old this week.
That kind of seems like a big number…
But I couldn’t find any sadness anywhere…only love and honor and favor and a quiet, slow-burning anticipation of things to come.
I happened upon a scripture a few months ago that helped my perspective about getting older…
Genesis 18
Here is my version, paraphrased:
Abraham is sitting in the doorway of his tent in the heat of the day. There’s a dusty wind blowing through the Terebinth trees. He’s on his favorite goat-skin stool…like the ones we used to sit on at my Mamaw’s house in NW Louisiana. He’s hot. He’s old. He’s seen some stuff. He’s been through some things. He’s got an amazing testimony…
Long ago, he left his familiar, comfortable home in downtown Ur for places unknown. He traveled thousands of miles, following the old trade routes, passing through impressive, ancient cities and isolated desert plains. He passed through Canaan. He sojourned in Egypt. He had an experience at Bethel. He had to deal with Lot. He wins the battles with five kings. He meets Melchizedek. He makes some mistakes…some BIG ones. The dude has lived his life and could very easily just sit back and enjoy his latter years.
I picture him there…pensive, reminiscent, peaceful, and settled. His body shows his journey, with his dark hair graying, his face craggy from the many miles in the sun, his hands worn by years of travel and conflict. He’s not INSIDE his tent…he’s sitting in the door. We might say he was sittin’ on the porch.
And then…
He looks up and sees “The Lord” approaching him…and he RUNS, he HURRIES, he EAGERLY meets “the next thing…
He was old, living amid a world that had gone mad in many ways…
But he LOOKS UP…
He HURRIES to meet the message before he even knows what it’s about…
He HONORS the Lord…
And he GIVES his first and his best—in this case, flour, water, the fattest calf – to the call set before him…
…. all when he was “old,” even for Old Testament days…
So, Father Abraham has been speaking to me, and I hope he is speaking to you!
However, many years are behind you, there is something waiting for you under the Terebinth tree of your life. Don’t let anybody tell you that you are too old…don’t believe the dishonor of our culture that implies you are less important than the younger generation…don’t let the medical system install fear in you where faith should live…don’t go quietly into the night!
As for me, I’m in the door of my tent, seated on all that He has provided, surrounded by a beautiful testimony and a kind and loving family…
…but I’m looking up, I’m hurrying to meet Him, I’m honoring by bowing down to His plan, and I’m offering my first and my best to all that Father Yahweh has put in my life as I enter my 7th decade.
And I hope you are too…because His plan is a generational one…and He needs the wisdom and the grace and the experience that we older ones bring to the table! Maybe my hair is graying (you’ll never know), maybe my face is now more wrinkles than freckles, maybe my hands are aged by 60 years of life…but here I am, living, breathing, and believing that I can still be of use to His cause in the earth.
And so can you!
So, look up, my older friends…and get ready to RUN to meet YOUR next thing.