Aging Well

One of my friends celebrated her 90^th birthday this year. She would not use the word ‘celebrate’ because she says this is the first time that she has felt old. She says, “I don’t know how to do ninety.” She struggles to explain her emotions.

I’ve thought about that statement and tried to understand what she is feeling. She could mean that at her age, it is difficult to make plans for she does not know how much time she has left or what the future holds. This is true for everyone, but when those birthdays pile up it comes into sharper focus. This thought helps me with today’s devotional reading:

Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”— yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.” As it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin. (James 4:13–17)

From my hubby and life, I’ve learned the importance of thinking ahead and making plans. As the old saying goes, It is better to aim for the stars and hit the woodpile, then to aim for the woodpile and hit your foot. Or aim for nothing and you will surely hit it! However, God says I’m to consider the unpredictability of life as the above passage says, and the will of God. I can make my plans but God often uses life to interrupt or change them.

This is something of what my friend is feeling as she ages. She hesitates to make plans because she is not certain she can carry them out. For me, that would feel like being tossed in the air and not sure if I will come down, an ‘in limbo’ sensation and not at all pleasant because of its uncertainty.

This week she also explained that she is here yet she feels like she is slowly disappearing. For that, another passage came instantly to mind. As I read it to her, she flipped the pages in her Bible and read it again, all the time saying, “Hallelujah, Hallelujah!”

So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal. (2 Corinthians 4:16–18)

She said that all her life God has been preparing her for glory. This must be her focus, not just now as her time approaches, but it has been true for a long time. Nothing has changed at becoming ninety, only that she is closer to the reality of experiencing that promised ‘eternal weight of glory’ that is unseen yet nevertheless real and eternal.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Lord Jesus, I thank You for this friend whose words and life constantly point to You and Your promises. She struggles with the visible and transient stuff of life, including her aging outer self that is fading away, but she lights up when conversation is about those unseen realities, about You. She is a blessing to all who know her even though she seldom realizes it because her focus is not usually on herself but on You. She sets for me an example of what it means to grow old and remain faithful in my love for You.

Today’s thankful list . . .

- this and other friends who show me how to live for Christ.

- dying is not the end of life but a transition to endless life.

- the Holy Spirit who helps me keep my focus on what I cannot see.

- enough tomatoes from our single plant to make a big bowl of tomato soup.

- the smell of gingersnaps as they come out of the oven.

- the ability to sleep whenever I need a nap.

Misunderstanding Jesus

The woman misunderstood Jesus on several levels, expressing them with questions. First, she could not understand why He asked her for a drink of water . . .

A woman from Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” (For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.) The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?” (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.) (John 4:7–8)

Jesus came to her like He comes to everyone — offering living water, a euphemism for eternal life. Her question was also the question of many. It could have been phrased, “Why are you bothering with me for you consider me a sinner?” She didn’t understand that Jesus came not to condemn but to seek and save sinners.

Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.” (John 4:9–10)

She didn’t realize her part in this offer of eternal life, first of recognizing that this is a gift and second that this is God in human flesh offering it to her. Who better qualified? But she didn’t get it.

The woman said to him, “Sir, you have nothing to draw water with, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob? He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his livestock.” (John 4:11–13)

She thought that the offer was about temporary things, the good life here on earth with others willing to help her get it. How many people think God is like this, a genie in a bottle to grant their wishes? She didn’t understand this either.

Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” (John 4:13–14)

Now Jesus speaks directly to the nature of the gift and that water is really a metaphor for eternal life. She is starting to get it . . .

The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water.” (John 4:15)

But she is still thinking on the temporal level, about life here on earth. The eternal life part is beyond her grasp. What truth does she yet need to realize before she understands?

Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come here.” The woman answered him, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You are right in saying, ‘I have no husband’; for you have had five husbands, and the one you now have is not your husband. What you have said is true.” The woman said to him, “Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet. (John 4:16–19)

She, like all of us, first had to grasp and understand that she is a sinner in need of a Savior. As soon as she could see that, she was on her way to understanding who Jesus is and that her situation was far more important than water. She turned her thinking to worship and heard Him describe true worship. As the conversation went on, she finally got it. She dropped her water jar and ran to tell the people in her town that she had found the Christ.

I never noticed before the sequence in her confusion and enlightening. Jesus made the offer, but she didn’t get it until He pointed out her need for it. She was a sinner. Her thirst for water was a tiny picture of her thirst for love, for life, for completeness. She needed forgiveness and all that Jesus could offer her.

^^^^^^^^

Lord, I know this woman. I know the confusion and the thirst, the questions and that final revealing of my sin. You came to me and changed my life. Since then, I’ve been trying to explain it to others who go through the same misunderstanding and confusion. But only the Holy Spirit can convict of sin. I am able to accuse, but that is not what You want from me. It doesn’t work. I get it. Thank You.

True riches

This morning, both desktop and laptop required maintenance. The frustration of waiting for that little Windows wheel to stop spinning reminded me of friends who bought a boat. At the time, they were living minutes from the ocean and were excitedly looking forward to hours of pleasure. However, in a few months they sold the boat. They discovered that ocean sailing meant hours of maintenance, particularly to wash off all traces of corroding salt water. They said that the time it took to care for it erased all the pleasure of owning the boat.

This is somewhat related to the principle that every privilege comes with responsibility, but I am thinking of another principle; the things I value need to be considered in light of their lasting worth rather than their temporary pleasure. In the case of the boat, the discipline of caring for it could have been far more valuable in the long run than the fun had on the water.

The same is true for my computers. I use them for many things, but when they require maintenance, my need for patience is obvious. Do I value that virtue? Yes, I do. I also know that it develops only through frustrating experiences! If I treasure only what a computer can do for me, I’d go out and buy a new one every time I became frustrated with the old – and that would do nothing to develop patience in my heart.

Jesus speaks of what people consider valuable. Today’s devotional reading ties His words to worldly possessions, things that sometimes become idols . . .

Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. (Matthew 6:19–20)

When I die and go to heaven, my computers, car, house, clothes, everything will eventually rust or rot away, or someone could steal them today. Making them treasures only works as long as they work, or fit, or give me what I want from them. I need to look beyond those temporary benefits to find true treasure.

Besides, materialism is dangerous to my spiritual health. In the parable of the sower, Jesus describes hearts that hear the Word of God yet it does not take root and grow in their lives. He says, “Other seeds fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them.” (Matthew 13:7)

When the disciples asked Him to explain the parable, Jesus said of those seeds and thorns . . .

As for what was sown among thorns, this is the one who hears the word, but the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and it proves unfruitful. (Matthew 13:22)

Having a love for my stuff can distract me from the Word of God, but worse, it can also make it go in one ear and out the other instead of changing my life. If anything, boats, computers, television, tablets, books, or any other toys produce “cares” and the “deceitfulness of riches” in my heart, then my relationship with God will suffer and so will my spiritual growth and fruitfulness.

I am so thankful for the grace of God and the Holy Spirit. He has shown me that stuff isn’t anything compared to knowing Him and daily walking in His light. Because of Christ, I can turn from the idolatry of materialism, realizing the importance of lasting treasures . . .

For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age . . .  (Titus 2:11–12)

Certainly some of that stuff is needful, but my heart’s attitude toward it is far more important.