Isaiah 40:30,31 “Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.”
Our oldest supporter, Alison Hall, died a few years ago. Well into her nineties she was still baking cakes to sell and raise funds for us at the weekly market down the road from her. My Granny went back out to Africa to work with widows when she was 83-years-old once Grandpa died, and she was still full of zest to keep on going as long as God would grant her. Both those ladies were seriously wrinkly and physically decrepit, but age is a state of mind – you’re as old as you feel – and they were young at heart.
General Douglas MacArthur wrote: “Youth is not a period of time. It is a state of mind, a result of the will, a quality of the imagination, a victory of courage over timidity, of the taste for adventure over the love of comfort. A man doesn’t grow old because he has lived a certain number of years. A man grows old when he deserts his ideal. The years may wrinkle his skin, but deserting his ideal wrinkles his soul. Preoccupations, fears, doubts, and despair are the enemies which slowly bow us toward earth and turn us into dust before death. If one day you should become bitter, pessimistic, and gnawed by despair, may God have mercy on your old man’s soul.”
So if age is a state of mind, what state is yours in? So much of life has to do with our attitude. Don’t blame it on which side of the bed you got out this morning, choose to be hopeful in the Lord today, and he will renew your strength.
God Almighty, I indeed choose to be hopeful and young at heart today. Amen!
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