Aging

READ: Ecclesiastes 12:1-8

Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth, while the evil days come not, nor the years draw nigh, when thou shalt say, I have no pleasure in them;

Ecclesiastes 12:1

The kingdom of God needs energetic people for the ministry. In the first part of your life you are full of faith, hope and love. Older people have seen pain, bitterness and death. Bad experiences have made them weary and suspicious of everything. They trust no one and are unwilling to try new things. The spirit of adventure is gone. Tiredness and weariness have set in.

Yes, they believe in God but it is a little different from a younger person’s faith. In this first part of your life, you are not yet broken-hearted. It is this first part that God badly wants. Ecclesiastes 12, aptly describes this. It is said that King Solomon wrote Songs of Solomon in his youth, Proverbs in his middle age and Ecclesiastes in his older years. You will notice that the mood of each of these books is different. In the Songs of Solomon, he is in love and he is excited. In the Book of Proverbs, he expresses practical wisdom for regular life. But in the Book of Ecclesiastes, his mood is quite different. He describes many of life’s experiences as useless, fruitless and vain.

This drop in mood greatly affects the work of God. It takes faith and hope on earth to take up your cross and sacrifice for an unseen God. In the first part of your life you are very teachable. As you get older, you seem to be stuck in your own ways. As the saying goes, “You can’t teach an old dog new tricks.” There seems to be a teachable and humble spirit in the first part of our lives.