Is Age Really Just A Number?

https://odb.org/MY/2022/04/26/age-is-just-a-number

I’m now in mid-fifties and having been a youth and a young adult before, I can testify that there are differences in the things we could easily do when younger and which we could still do now but with more effort. I recalled I could spend the whole day shifting house on my own, loading and unloading stuff, packing and unpacking boxes. But now I dread the day when I have to move house again. Of course, we accumulate more things along the way but the energy to work at it the whole day is possibly no longer there or even if still there, will take a much longer time to recover. Or working late to finish a report, paper or an agreement. If I were to sleep at 3.00 am now and wake up at 5.30 am, the next day will practically be ruined! In the past, I could do that the whole week! Those who have done IPO projects will know what I’m talking about.

So age is not a mere number. But being young doesn’t mean that we cannot be spiritual and a leader and being older doesn’t mean that we can only be pew Christians or arm chair critics. Being young, we will have all the energy in the world but not the time as we balance our career with ministry. We may not have the experience, confidence and boldness but that’s really a “chicken and egg” situation. With practice, we can only get better.

But being older and retired, we may have all the time in the world but not the energy or the motivation to serve God with all our heart. Perhaps it is easier to become lazy and complacent, relying on our past contributions to justify our position or just an excuse not to contribute anymore. After all, salvation is not by works but by grace and our faith in Christ and yet we forget that we must love God with all our heart soul and mind and loving God means serving Him and living life as a living sacrifice unto Him.

Without belabouring the point, I think as much as age plays an important role in terms of experience and spiritual maturity and physical energy, we must always give our best whether we are younger or older. It is not right to say leave it all to the younger folks and just be a spectator and neither it is correct to say leave it to the more experienced and spiritual (meaning older) folks as they are better at it having done that for years. We know spiritual maturity and age don’t necessarily correlate. But that’s not the point this morning. The message today I believe is that we should all serve and do our part while we can no matter what’s our age. This is because there may come a day when we are afflicted with a serious illness and thus incapacitated or we are severely diminished in our ability to serve. Or we may be called home to be with the Lord. Serve God now while we can. Don’t wait till we retire or after we have achieved our career goals. And if we have retired, continue to serve God, don’t leave the work to the younger ones. Serve Him while we can, while we still have breath.