“God, You have taught me since my youth, and till now I have told Your wonders. And even in hoary old age, O God, do not forsake me. Till I tell of Your mighty arm to the next generation, to all those who will come, [I will tell of] Your power, and Your bounty, O God, [I will extol you] to the heights, as You have done great things, O God, who is like You?” PSALM 71:17–19 (THE HEBREW BIBLE BY ROBERT ALTER, 2007 WITH MY INTERPOLATIONS IN BRACKETS)
As we grow older our horizons in life tend to shrink. In my own case, in business I travelled half the globe. Today about the longest regular journey I do is to travel to church each week.
Our horizons shrink in other ways too. We may eat less, and with less variety and daring. We tend to stick with old favourites, and then with lesser and lesser sized portions. Instead of an adventurous annual holiday to unexplored destinations – or even two or more in the year – we stay home, rejoicing in our comfortable bed, our familiar surroundings and with our every usual daily comfort well in place.
But as Christians, this must not be so with our spiritual horizons. God designed old age; nothing we experience in old age surprises him. Aching limbs and creaking digestive systems, ills and growing disabilities, none of these surprise our Father. And he makes every allowance for us, as we must limit what we can continue to do.
Spiritually speaking, now is our time. We often have more time, freer time, to pursue spiritual activities without distraction. Here, our horizons should be expanding, and ever expanding. We have time to pray more comprehensively; to read our Bibles with greater emphasis on seeking out what’s there to profit us, what’s still in the text which God wants us to uncover about him.
And time for one of the greatest keys I have discovered in recent times: that of meditation. A tool I never used in younger days, but now find indispensable. Understand, not the meditation of the shaman, chrysalis and mantras, but the kind
David used to unlock knowledge of his God – to saturate his mind with God’s thinking, with God’s mind, with God’s being.
Prayer Heavenly, Father, You have done great things and we pray that we may faithfully declare your power to the next generation. Amen.