One of my joys in the JOY Lutheran family, is sharing in the wisdom which comes with age. This past week I heard the witness of a couple whose health challenges might cause others to become bitter and resentful. Yet, they described an incredible growth in faith and love in their relationship with God and each other. Pastor Ed said funerals are different when you really believe.  They’re different because hope remains, even after death.

At the end of The Divine Conspiracy, Dallas Willard describes growing old in The Kingdom of Heaven.  Abundant life is accessible to us now though Jesus.  As we age in the Kingdom, we “find ourselves constantly growing in our readiness and ability to draw our direction, strength, and overall tone of life from the everlasting kingdom,” and from our personal interactions with Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Our hearts, minds and character are transformed as we become more like our Heavenly Father.  Aging becomes “a process not of losing, but of gaining. As our physical body fades out, our glory body, [a body like Christ’s after his resurrection] approaches and our spiritual substance grows richer and deeper.”

George MacDonald, in Diary of an Old Soul writes:

Our old age is the scorching of the bush
By life’s indwelling, incorruptible blaze.
O life, burn at this feeble shell of me,
Till I the sore singed garment off shall push,
Flap out my Psyche wings, and to thee rush.

May we live in the Kingdom (whatever our body) here, now and always. Read 2 Cor 5: 1-5 and remember God loves you UNCONDITIONALLY.

– Mike