We retirees are confronted
daily with not being able to do the things we used to do. Generally speaking we
accept our limitations and live without expectations that our physical or
financial situation will improve with age. However, after reading the book of Job it occurs to me that I’ve sorely
underestimated the Lord’s work in the life of seniors, “The LORD blessed the
latter part of Job’s life more than the first…” (Job 42:12a NIV).
1 comment:
Gail;
-----Job suffered immensely before that blessing. And even though he did not endure that suffering gloriously, he endured it enough for it to successfully test his metal and for the Lord to make His point about Himself. And all this suffering came by the Lord’s agreement to lower His sheltering wall for Satan to launch an assault on his character.
-----So I almost objected to drawing a conclusion from Job about blessings in senior’s lives. His life seemed rather out of the ordinary. But not all things are as they seem. The degree of his wealth was rather out of the ordinary, as was the degree and suddenness of his tragedies. But that we don’t get our minds so right about God in our earlier years and that we tend to fall over the edge of at least a couple or more cliffs during our lives is quite similar to Job.
-----Job ended his ordeal with a better knowledge of and relationship with the Lord. Although possessions and family were both returned to him in greater degree than before, his real increase in wealth was his better grasp on the realities of God, especially from having conversed directly with God.
-----I look back over my life and I see the “Job pattern” in it. Of course, I never lost a family. But though I was desiring to marry once out of High School, I wasn’t able to marry until I had lived the entire length of my life over again. How frustrating and demeaning! But I have the wealth of a marriage to exactly the lady my life needed with blessings for children and grand children. And that’s not even the beginning of my wealth.
-----I’ve always considered the greatest thing about old age is its closeness to death. This probably strikes most people as morbid. I can understand aversion to the idea. But I have always viewed death as a doorway, a humiliating, even demeaning one albeit, but a doorway all the same. And when you come to know the Lord with an honest desire for His ways and righteousness to be actual in your own soul, then crossing through that doorway is to move from a small, cluttered, ambiguous and dark room into the bright, sunny light of an Eden-like bliss. The only things keeping me from wanting to rush that door is the need my family has for me here and that desiring to be where you are while you are there is an important part of the Lord’s righteousness. So, the older I get the closer I draw to being through that door. And since proximity is one of the three basic elements of relationship, the closer I get in my relationship with the Lord, at least from the standpoint of proximity of time.
Love you all,
Steve Corey
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