Age is such a funny and fickle
thing. A once in a lifetime opportunity. The numbers come and go, never to be
returned to. My recent birthday left me forgetting how many years I had nestled
in to this body, as I responded to the questioning of my age with an additional
year added by accident.
I still see my nine year old self
on the play ground walking with a friend sharing the excitement of becoming two
full hands worth of years. Moving from one to two numbers to symbolize my age.
An entire decade. And now, nearly two more have passed since. Two that saw the coming
and going of sixteen leading in to eighteen, which inevitably escorted me in to
twenty-one.
And now I sit with thirty
approaching in two years. But that is all just math. Just the counting of my
trips around the sun. And life is more
than counting how many years everyone has accrued, though I used to think
otherwise and always finding comfort in Paul's words to Timothy.
Don't let anyone look down on you because you
are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in conduct, in love,
in faith and in purity. 1 Timothy 4:12
Someone always has to be older
and someone has to be younger.
But how do you get there? When do
you cross over from the young to the old? When does the transition and exchange
change place? At the rate I am going, I
do not foresee the moment occurring. And when I get there, I probably will not
remember what number I have racked up.
I love how Paul said not let
anyone look down on him. Timothy had a choice. He could let others look down on
him or choose to rise past that, following his calling and setting an example
for those who had more trips around the sun. He was to be the model to his
elders of how to act in Christ, which our calling today despite whatever our
birthday says.
Praying that you would not push
off the advice of the younger because they have not yet experienced life the way
you have and perhaps appears green and wearing rose colored glasses. Praying that
those rose colored glasses would shed new light because of their innocence and
wisdom that God gives despite how old.
Praying that as you accrue more numbers that
you would not just grow taller but that you would be filled with the Spirit and
bend to the teachings of Christ. That you
would be more open to hearing the truth and correction and not stuck in the
ways of your youth. That you would be more apt to putting off the old for the
new and following Christ whole heartily.
Here's to numbers and birthdays
and examples.