Hello,
I discovered something yesterday.
I am getting older.
I happened to look through the pictures that are part of my facebook
page, a page that I have had for about 10 years, and over the past 10 years the
pictures told me, “You are getting older!” Lesser hair.
Grayer hair. Fuller
cheeks.
It is not that I was unaware of the passing of the years, but living
with myself day after day, I hadn’t noticed the degree of aging that was
happening in my appearance. Thing
is, I don’t feel all that older. I
know that I can’t do all the things that I used to do when I was younger (like
run up and down a basketball court for hours or pile up a bunch of firewood and
not wake up sore then next day or stay up all night with a bunch of high school
kids and not feel exhausted), but I still feel like I approach every day with
the vitality that I have always had.
For me, I have tried to look at life as an adventure, and I feel as
energetic today as in my younger years to take the adventure on.
It makes me also think about what my faith looks like now, verses what
it looked like when I was younger.
Maybe the same things can be said about my faith as my face. Lesser hair. Grayer hair.
Fuller cheeks.
Lesser hair. I don’t find
myself having to take a comb to my faith as much as I did when I was
younger. It just doesn’t have to
be as neat as I used to think it had to be. I don’t find myself “splitting hairs” as much as I did when
I was younger. I find myself
less focused on that which the wind of the world can blow around and more
focused on that which the world cannot change, God’s love for me. My bald spot has grown….my bald spot of
grace.
Grayer hair. If graying is
a sign of waning vitality, I see the graying in my faith. I don’t mean that my faith is getting
weaker….rather I see that the strength of my faith is far less of me and far
more of God. As much as I still
seek to hold onto God, I am far more concerned that God is holding tightly onto
me. Over the years of stumbling
and tripping I have seen that God has always been there to hold me up and pick
me up. As my faith has aged and
grayed, I have found myself more aware of the vitality of the grip of God on
me.
Fuller cheeks. The lifetime
of feasting on the grace of God has made its mark on me. My faith is not gaunt. If anything my faith shows the years
and years of being well fed with God’s mercy and grace. Even though on my side of my
relationship with God, I may have been stingy at times, God has never been
stingy. Always feasting me with
forgiveness…always refilling my empty cup with hope…always serving up a desert
of love that is sweet and irresistible.
Indeed, I have aged…and that’s ok.
I think I would go as far as to say that my aging is a good thing. I know that my aging facebook pictures
portray the many things for which I am thankful in this adventure of life, and
I know that my aging faith-book pictures portray the many things for which I am
thankful to God as God has shared this adventure with me.
Have a great week.
God’s grace and peace, (ggap)
Pastor Jerry Nuernberger
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