GPBC Blog

It’s interesting how life hits you at my age; 80 is not that far away. Not that long ago, about this time of the year, Wayne and I would start talking about what we’d like to accomplish in the next year and how we would be able to do that. Now, as I think about next year, I recognize that I have limitations, less energy, less capacity, and less mobility but at the same time, still a passionate and growing love for our Lord and for His people. So thinking about next year is more about how to fulfill that love while at the same time embracing the limitations the Lord has given me.
 
I also find that I am spending more time thinking and reflecting about the past than about planning for the future. For example, at a family function several years ago, my mother-in-law, who was in her 80s at the time, was asked if she had any words to give her family. Without hesitation she said, “Jesus gets sweeter every day.” I so remember being impressed by that answer and hoping that when I got to be her age, I could say the same thing. Well now I am at that age, almost, and I still want to be able to give that answer, so I am asking myself these kinds of questions:

• Have I loved well? Jesus said the greatest commandment is to love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength, and to love others as you love yourself. Have I done that? Am I still doing that?
• The Bible says, “It is God who is at work in you to will and to act according to his good purpose.” Have I given the Lord the credit for what he’s done in me and how He has used me in other’s lives?
• Have I actually depended on the Holy Spirit to do his work in and through me, or have I relied on my own efforts, personality, or abilities?
• Am I still more concerned about what others think of me than what the Lord thinks?

After all of that reflection, I find that now I just want to express and experience my love for our Lord, to delight in his presence and in his word and in the people he has put in my life. I really believe that if I, and we, do that for as long as we have breath, I can truthfully say that he grows sweeter every day.