Too many birthdays?

My Dad used to explain his mental and physical problems with “I’ve had too many birthdays.” He was 90 when he died. Now at my age I sometimes say the same thing, particularly as I read challenges such as “Do you have zeal for a worthy cause? Is there some good for which you are being slandered? Or is your routine so harmless in this evil world that it fits nicely with the way things are going, and so nobody is asking you anything?”

Yes, I know that Moses didn’t get started until he was 80 and that God can renew the strength of those who wait on Him…

Have you not known? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might he increases strength. Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted; but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint. (Isaiah 40:28–31)

The Bible says He can. My faith says He can. Yet this is not gold-stamped with a seal to make it certain. Many days I feel faint and without strength, asking for renewal. Over my desk is a painting of eagles with a reference:

Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name! Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits, who forgives all your iniquity, who heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit, who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy, who satisfies you with good so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s. (Psalm 103:1–5)

Because I appear to be younger, expectations from others are higher than the way I feel. I don’t want ‘renewed youth’ to meet those expectations, but I do want to have what is needed to do what God asks of me, even on those days when it feels like I’ve had way too many birthdays.

Others verses echo the cries of those with white hair and bodies that no longer cooperate with ambition, or even wipe it out:

Do not cast me off in the time of old age; forsake me not when my strength is spent. (Psalm 71:9)
O God, from my youth you have taught me, and I still proclaim your wondrous deeds. So even to old age and gray hairs, O God, do not forsake me, until I proclaim your might to another generation, your power to all those to come. Your righteousness, O God, reaches the high heavens. You who have done great things, O God, who is like you? (Psalm 71:17–19)
The righteous flourish like the palm tree and grow like a cedar in Lebanon. They are planted in the house of the Lord; they flourish in the courts of our God. They still bear fruit in old age; they are ever full of sap and green, to declare that the Lord is upright; he is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in him. (Psalm 92:12–15)

The Bible shows that the average lifespan in OT times was less than my age now. We live in a country whose average now is lower than my age also. How true what Moses wrote:

For all our days pass away under your wrath; we bring our years to an end like a sigh. The years of our life are seventy, or even by reason of strength eighty; yet their span is but toil and trouble; they are soon gone, and we fly away. (Psalm 90:9–10)

And how true what my hubby often says; we are all terminal. A friend told us of his sister’s death last week. She was getting ready to go somewhere with her spouse, and put on one shoe, then left this earth. Some die violently, or because of a painful illness, or an accident. We don’t get to choose (despite efforts to make it lawful) but even so, it still happens. Best option:

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. (John 3:16)

PRAY: Jesus, no matter my age, afternoon fatigue, or all other ‘symptoms’ of being old, eternal life began the moment You called me into a personal relationship with You, a relationship that changed my life here and my destiny when this life is over. This love affair with You makes such a difference in the way I look at too many birthdays!

Our Solid Rock

 

We live across the street from an entrance to a wildlife preserve with paved paths that our city maintains, even removing the snow in winter. The path going slightly downhill into the preserve has been lined with painted stones. Some are just colored but many tell a story and reveal the character of the person who put them in place. This line of stones, several meters long, is a record left by those who love walking that way. I thought of that reality when reading this verse for today:

As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious (1 Peter 2:4).

As the devotional writers says, calling Jesus “a living stone” is odd because we often use the term for something that is “stone dead” or “stone deaf”—  anything but alive, yet this symbolism was used in the OT as a reference to the promised Messiah.

The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. (Psalm 118:22)

And he will become a sanctuary and a stone of offense and a rock of stumbling to both houses of Israel, a trap and a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem. And many shall stumble on it. They shall fall and be broken; they shall be snared and taken.” (Isaiah 8:14–15)

Therefore thus says the Lord God, “Behold, I am the one who has laid as a foundation in Zion, a stone, a tested stone, a precious cornerstone, of a sure foundation: ‘Whoever believes will not be in haste.’ (Isaiah 28:16)

Peter refers to these thoughts as he goes on to describe this “living stone” . . .

For it stands in Scripture: “Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone, a cornerstone chosen and precious, and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.” So the honor is for you who believe, but for those who do not believe, “The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone,” and “A stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense.” They stumble because they disobey the word, as they were destined to do. (1 Peter 2:6–8)

This would be important to his Jewish readers as their expectations of the Messiah at last were met in the Lord Jesus Christ.

This idea of cornerstone is also about the church that He is building. Those who design and construct stone buildings know that the cornerstone is a vital part of what they are doing. It must be firm and square, in total alignment and in a perfect and immovable place that gives a solid reference point for the remaining parts of the building. This is true of Jesus Christ who is our solid cornerstone.

The word that makes Peter’s words leap off the page is that this stone is “living” pointing to the truth that Jesus is alive. Death could not hold Him. He is our hope because in Him, we have eternal life and all spiritual privilege that God promises to His people. That’s the believer’s hope and the basis for every spiritual privilege we have.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. (1 Peter 1:3)

Jesus is the stone that possesses life — and because He lives, I will also live.

PRAY: Jesus, we visited Your child, LM, who is in the trauma ward of the hospital. She fell backwards down a flight of stairs, yet the most amazing thing is the joy on her face. You are her living hope and You hold her hand, even in her pain and the surgeries necessary to replace several broken bones. She said she yelled at You and wanted to know why, and You told her, “I’m not finished with you yet.” Because You are alive and because You are her solid rock, Your words gave her a satisfied peace. Trusting You in whatever trials we face is most precious. We do not stumble, nor are we offended by You. Instead, You are our Cornerstone and because of You, life does not have to be explained beyond the reality that You are in it with us. Bless and heal LM’s broken body and bless and heal this broken world.

PONDER: These verses from the psalms can be prayed, not only for LM but for all who need to be healed and need to stand firm on the solid Rock that is Christ: Psalm 6:2, 107:20, 147:3, and 1 John 5:11. Think of ways to help others remember the wonder of having life in Him.