Usefulness While Aging

I don’t believe I have ever met anyone who is excited at the thought of aging. Take this woman, for instance – an interviewer said to her:

“I see your birthday is May 5, Ms. Beale. May I ask what year?” Ms. Beale replied: “Every year.”

We don’t want others to know how old we are; lest they think we’re old. There really is no option however, and we all have to determine not if we will age, but how we will do it! It’s really up to us how we live our years as seniors. Denying the truth won’t change the situation, but a biblical perspective will be the best help we could give ourselves.

This week our Sunday school class studied Psalm 90-92. There are some wonderful helps in this passage to guide our aging process. Consider Psalm 90 verses 9b, 10 and 12. “We spend our years as a tale that is told. The days of our years are threescore years and ten; and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, yet is their strength labor and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away. So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.” We spend our years as a tale that is told – in other words we are preaching our funeral while we are living. You will be remembered by how you are living your life each day. The average years of a person’s life are seventy, but we can by His grace live to eighty or beyond, but we need to remember that we are living for the Judgment Seat of Christ where our works will be tried. We need to be living so that we will hear “Well done, thou good and faithful servant.”

I read that there are Seven Ages of Man:
6 weeks–all systems go
6 years–all systems “No!”
16 years–all systems know
26 years–all systems glow
36 years–all systems owe
56 years–all systems status quo
76 years–all systems slow

How then does an aging person continue to live so that their life counts for eternal purposes? They don’t have the stamina and strength that they had when they were younger. What can a senior citizen do for the Lord at this time in their life when “all systems are slow?” Here are a few suggestions:

• Become a prayer warrior for a younger person. Ask the Lord to burden your heart for someone for whom you could pray. Go to that person and ask them how you can pray for them that week, then pray! Go back to them and ask them how that situation is coming, reminding them of your prayers. Continue to pray for their needs each week. 
• Take a younger person under your wing as a mentor. Perhaps there is a younger person that would love to learn a skill you can do – knitting, sewing, baking, quilting, etc. While you’re with them, encourage them in the Scriptures and their walk with God.
• Be a prayer warrior for your pastor and other leaders in your church. If you are familiar with other pastors, pray for their needs as well. Write them a note to tell them you’re praying for them. Satan is seeking to destroy them and their ministry; what a blessing you could be to them!
• If you are able to bake, make something – cookies, a pie, homemade bread (you could just bake a frozen loaf) to a family that has moved into your neighborhood and is unchurched, a young family in your church that’s had a new baby or a new family that’s visited your church.
• Give out tracts. When you go out to eat, give one to the waitress. Hand one to the clerk at the store where you shop. Put one on the bread you give to your new neighbor.
• Be a verbal witness. Be praying for someone that the Lord would give you the chance to share the Gospel with. If you can’t get out, ask Him to bring someone to you!
• Write a card or email of encouragement each week to someone for whom the Lord burdens your heart. It might be a missionary your church supports, your pastor, or a church member going through a trial.

These are just a few suggestions to get you thinking. I believe if we really desire to be used of the Lord we will be like Psalm 92:14 says, “They shall still bring forth fruit in old age; they shall be fat and flourishing.” I love this verse. A person that serves the Lord with a right heart won’t just have leaves, they will bear fruit! No matter how old we are, we can be useful to God -even if your “systems are slow!”