Monday: Primarily to Making aLiving Instead of Giving aLife
WEEK 47
MONDAY
PRIMARILY TO MAKING A LIVING INSTEAD OF GIVING A LIFE
Ecclesiastes 7:8-10
We ended yesterday with the question as to why there were no problems, only possibilities, about old age in the New Testament. The two references are these: “Your elders will dream dreams” (Acts 2:17), and “Paul—an old man” (Phlm 9). There is the reference to Timothy not to enroll a widow who is under sixty years of age (1 Tim 5:9), which would be about eighty with us, considering the average span of life then and now.
Now what was the secret? It was very simple. They never considered retiring at a certain age and sitting down and doing nothing. They were primarily Christians and bearers of the good news. They carried on their occupations to support themselves while they were doing that. And they kept them up as long as they were physically able. When they were not, the church took them over; so they could continue bearing the good news. Now anyone who hasn’t that as the central purpose of life feels lost and frustrated when retired from ordinary occupation, for that person has given himself or herself primarily to making a living instead of giving a life. The primary purpose is material; and when that goes, the spiritual is not strong enough for a person to carry on without frustration, hence a vast feeling of upset. The secret is simple: Build into your Christian life now, while you’re at work, a controlling purpose—the purpose of bearing the good news—of being a lay evangelist in some form or other. You cannot think of Wesley retiring at a certain age; he was busy up to the end, saying to everybody, everywhere, “I commend my Savior to you.” No wonder his last words were, “The best of all is, God is with us.” You cannot think of Paul retiring at a certain age and sitting down enjoying himself. His last words were these, “I’m already being poured out like a sacrifice to God, and the time of my death is near. I have fought the good fight, finished the race, and kept the faith. At last the champion’s wreath that is awarded for righteousness is waiting for me” (2 Tim 4:6-8). Nothing more beautiful has fallen from the human pen about old age; it is mastery.
O Spirit Divine, make my every cell alive with you, and then I shall be perpetually rejuvenated. Then my body will be the adequate vehicle of your grace and power clear up to the end. Amen.
AFFIRMATION FOR THE DAY: I shall live today in two worlds at once, and the eternal world will be more real than the temporal.