For a number of years now, I’ve been waking up on my birthday morning and asking the question, “How can someone as young as me be as old as this?”
No satisfactory answer has been forthcoming. So I’ve learned to accept the unavoidable truth—I’m one year older—and I get up and get on with my life.
By the time you hold this letter in your hands, I’ll have passed another of these annual milestones, as I embark on my 90th year on Planet Earth. The world is a very different place than it was back in 1930. And I’m a very different person. One thing’s for sure—I have aged. Relentlessly!
As we age, we change. So do other people. So does life. So does the world we live in. For some people, this change is exciting and invigorating. For others—especially as our years increase—the process of aging can be unsettling and unwelcome.
If that describes how you feel, you’re not alone.
Perhaps you’re familiar with the old hymn that voiced the concern of one who was finding aging to be unsettling:
Change and decay / In all around I see,
Oh Thou who changest not, / Abide with me.
The author of this hymn, an Anglican clergyman named Henry Francis Lyte, finished writing it in the final year of his life. Acutely aware of his own mortality, Lyte wisely turned to the One who “changest not”—calling for the security, comfort, hope, and peace that are only found by abiding in His presence.
In Jesus, loneliness is banished, purposelessness becomes a thing of the past, and we can declare with joy, “God isn’t finished with me yet!”
It’s a timeless truth of Scripture: as you abide in Him, and He in you, your life becomes fruitful and God-honoring, whether you are 19 or 99! (See John 15.)
Yes, by abiding in Him, aging can be an adventure as fresh endeavors unfold and new discoveries are made. In Him, loneliness is banished, purposelessness becomes a thing of the past, and we can declare with joy, “God isn’t finished with me yet!”
My friend, that’s true for you, no matter how old you are.
Sincerely,
Stuart Briscoe
P.S. God has purposes and plans for you to embrace every day, throughout every season, and in every stage of your life. Jill and I would love to help you learn more with our book and teaching series titled Improving with Age.