August 10, 2019
It is unfortunate how some people view physical aging as a curse and will make every attempt to recapture their youth by trying to out-do people half their age. To the casual observer, wearing younger fashions, buying sportier cars, and engaging in social activities targeted to younger audiences are expensive and futile attempts to prove something.
What can we say about these attempts to recapture the past and achieve an impossible dream? Are they coping mechanisms to address the guilt, shame or regret of past failures and missed opportunities? Or are they attempts to relive the nostalgia of our pleasant past? One can never be sure.
Aging is not a curse, and grey hair is a badge of honor worn by aged, experienced men and women who exhibit a stellar lifestyle that challenges and inspires us to excellence—long after they have passed away from the earth.
Without a faith-based, personal relationship with God through Jesus Christ, we humans are certain to live defeated, sin-enslaved lives—whether young or old. This is as Proverbs 16:31 (NLT) teaches: Gray hair is a crown of glory; it is gained by living a godly life.
Psalm 8:5 tells how God designed us a little lower than the angels; that we are crowned with His glory and honor with all things under our feet. Truly, God has given us an amazing pedigree that is up to us to accept and fulfill.
Unlike other created beings, we humans can choose to live noble lives that reflect our Creator’s dignity and to affect positive changes in others around us. Thus, we cannot be mistakes or afterthoughts because we are special and unique creations who fulfill the Lord’s perfect, eternal design.
God created us—complex creatures who function according to His purpose: to honor Him always!
Our minds control our cognitive and anatomical functions. We use them for proper thoughts, feelings, perceptions, and memories. Our bodies are His instruments that perform tangible and meaningful acts that reveal His love and goodness in the world.
The Lord did not create us to be the Enemy’s weapons of death and destruction. The Enemy’s mission is to confuse and distort the Lord’s perfect plan by convincing us that our internal and external differences “prove” we are flawed and worthless. Many of us believe we are ugly and that we won’t amount to anything. Too many of us have accepted this fallacy and believe we will do nothing but fail in this life.
Nevertheless, Psalm 139:14 reads: Thank you [Lord] for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvelous—how well I know it. We are God’s crowning achievement of creation and salvation. As such, we are responsible for living out the noble plan He has designed specifically for each of us before we were born—to the best of our ability.
Much like the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle, God created us special and uniquely different so that when assembled, we reveal His beautiful portrait of love, redemption, and glory.