There is an insidious narrative and it goes like this:
- AI is taking away our jobs: better keep up
- War is coming: stock up
- Housing, food, fuel price hike: tighten your belts
- Plan your retirement: invest, save, save more
- The future is dark, etc, etc
I don’t know about you but this kind of talk makes me restless and anxious.
There is an alternative narrative we can choose and it goes like this:
Growing old is part of the human experience. As a child of a loving Father, I choose to live in restful trust because my Father knows, my Father cares. He cares for the flowers of the field and the birds of the air. Would he care any less for me?
These Bible passages minister to me:
2 Cor 4:16-18
- 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… Suffering is part of the human experience
- …an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison… We have HOPE
- …as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen… Our feet are on planted on earth, but our hearts bend heavenwards to our Father, to the things our eyes cannot see
I remember what my Bible school teacher the late Mrs Eileen Kuhn taught us (Prov 4:18)
But the path of the righteous is like the light of dawn,
which shines brighter and brighter until full day.
We live in dark days but we know our future is bright, secure, and full of hope… Things can get tough but never buy into the lie that there’s no hope in our future.
When things get tough, we can cry out to our Father (Psalm 71)
17 O God, from my youth you have taught me,
and I still proclaim your wondrous deeds.
18 So even to old age and grey hairs,
O God, do not forsake me,
until I proclaim your might to another generation,
your power to all those to come.
19 Your righteousness, O God,
reaches the high heavens.
You who have done great things,
O God, who is like you?
We remind ourselves (Psalm 37)
25 I have been young, and now am old,
yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken
or his children begging for bread.
Old age doesn’t reduce my value (Psalm 92)
The righteous flourish like the palm tree
and grow like a cedar in Lebanon.
13 They are planted in the house of the Lord;
they flourish in the courts of our God.
14 They still bear fruit in old age;
they are ever full of sap and green,
15 to declare that the Lord is upright;
he is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in him.
We are earthen vessels. My physical body may not be like that of my youth, BUT I carry inside me the glory of my living God (2 Cor 4:7-12)
But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. 8 We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; 9 persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; 10 always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our bodies. 11 For we who live are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. 12 So death is at work in us, but life in you.
I am transforming from one glory to another as I keep my eyes on Jesus (2 Cor 3: 18)
And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.