Some people work hard to delay aging, don’t they?
Like many women, my wife Jill buys a face cream that she says helps her skin. It’s called Oil of Olay. I call it Oil of Delay. Because even though everyone you meet is aging, no one wants to look as if we are.
You can try to delay it, defy it, or deny it; but if you’ve had a birthday in the last 12 months, you’re aging. I propose that instead of denying it, we examine the phenomenon of aging within the context of who God is.
Our eternal God has given each of us a tiny sliver of time, and He tells us to invest it wisely. Psalm 90:12 says, Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.
We need to turn to God and say, Lord, help me look carefully into living my life well. Keep me in tune with You from whom I come, through whom I live, and to whom I’m accountable.
As believers, you and I are in tune with God when we allow Him to “establish the work of our hands” (v 17). Psalm 90 finishes with wonderful guidance for us: Let your work be shown to your servants, and your glorious power to their children. Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us, and establish the work of our hands (vv 16-17 ESV).
Rather than bemoan the fact that we’re aging, we as believers can say that the older we get, the closer we are to being in His presence.
In the interim, we’re going to have the joy of His compassionate love and grace upon our lives. And we’ll have purpose in what we’re doing as we live one day at a time, saying, Lord, take this day. Establish the work of my hands, and do in me and through me that which pleases You and blesses humanity.
Do that—and aging can be an unheralded opportunity.
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