Description
Typically by this latter stage of life most people deal with one of two realities. They have either become disillusioned from life or just plain bored and apathetic. Regardless of which of these describe us, gaining a new vision of who Jesus is in our life is essential in moving forward. As we re-dig the wells that have become clogged with dirt of have become dry from overuse, God will provide everything we need in order to finish our race with meaning and purpose. So in order to run this stage of the race we will need to gain new perspective and redefine what success means for us.
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Video Script
Episode 14 Intro: A New Vision
Typically by this latter stage of life most people deal with one of two realities. They have either become disillusioned from life or just plain bored and apathetic. Regardless of which of these describe us, gaining a new vision of who Jesus is in our life is essential in moving forward. As we re-dig the wells that have become clogged with dirt of have become dry from overuse, God will provide everything we need in order to finish our race with meaning and purpose. So in order to run this stage of the race we will need to gain new perspective and redefine what success means for us.
A New Perspective
In these last four episodes of our Series I would like to focus on what it will take to leave a legacy. When we started our series, I mentioned that most people by this stage have either become disillusioned or apathetic. Disillusioned people are those who have not achieved the goals that they thought they would have and so have become discouraged. Their challenge will be to experience God’s grace and gain his perspective on all the detours that they have had to navigate in their journey.
On the other hand, apathetic leaders are those who have achieved most of their goals and are bored at this stage of life. They are in need of a new vision for their future. But regardless of which of these describe us, gaining a new vision of who Jesus is in our life is essential in moving forward. As we re-dig the wells that have become clogged with dirt or have become dry from overuse, God will provide everything we need in order to finish our race with purpose. In this episode we want to discuss the need for a new perspective. We will identify who our real source is and wrap up by looking at why it is so important to redefine what success really means for us.
To begin with, let me draw an analogy from the Old Testament. After being in captivity in Persia for many decades, the Jewish exiles began returning to Jerusalem and the first thing they did was to rebuild the temple. Once the foundation was laid, the young Levites broke into praise. After all those years in captivity with no temple, it was a pretty exciting day. But in Ezra 3:12 we see another group who had quite a different perspective. It says, “…many of the older priests and Levites and family heads, who had seen the former temple, wept aloud when they saw the foundation of this temple being laid, while many others shouted for joy.” In verse 13 Ezra writes that the sounds of joy and weeping could not be distinguished from the others. It was bedlam.
This narration of mixed responses is a story of differing perspective. I think this illustrates what happen even today. Depending upon our expectations, our perspective of the same events can be quite different. Having less experience, youth tend to view the way things are as the way they have always been. However, the older Levites had both the advantage and disadvantage of history. You see they had seen the temple in all its former glory, and so they looked at these very unimpressive foundations and could only remember the how great things once were.
One of the pitfalls of aging is that we have personal knowledge and a history of what God has done in the past and so we naturally view the present through that filter. The fact is that we all can have different responses to the same events. Our reaction is usually influenced by the way our lives have gone in, contrast to the expectations we may have had for our lives. The downside of experience is that we can view current events in our lives with sadness as we compare them with the way things were or could have turned out.
Our current situation can also fill us with fear as we view our losses compared to our past successes, or perhaps we are filled with grief as we realize we no longer have as much control over our lives. Grief can also be caused by the combined effect of past traumas and the current changes facing us. In the face of these greater uncertainties of life, like the Levites, we may also weep rather than rejoice in our latter years. This usually happens if our assumption is that our current situation will be how our story play out and is the final say on God’s will for us. This will likely cause us to experience sadness and sorrow. Like the Levites of old, we will only be able to weep as we focus on the changes in our lives for which we have no control over. Despair will be the result of thinking only of the glories of our past compared to the realities of our current situation. Yet in spite of all this, like me, I am sure your prayer echoes that of David, “Do not cast me away when I am old; do not forsake me when my strength is gone.” (Psa. 71:9)
God had promised that the glory of the latter temple would be greater than the former. Of course we know he was referring to the coming Messiah, which was a revelation beyond what the returning exiles could even imagine. Yet the same is true for us today. He desires to give us new perspective on this season of life, he makes a promise that we also may find hard to believe. He says, “Even to your old age and gray hairs I am he, I am he who will sustain you. I have made you and I will carry you; I will sustain you and I will rescue you.” (Isa. 46:4) As we see throughout Scripture, he promises that our latter days can be even greater than those heady exciting days of our youth. So in order to not be remorseful and grief stricken, like these older exiles, we need to see the new things God still wants to do in our lives. This will require a bit of a change in our perspective.
How about you, What perspective do you have on your life and your future? What gives you grief? What do you weep over? What steps can you take to change your perspective?
Our Source
If we only look at our circumstances or the way things are compared with how they were, discouragement is inevitable. Instead, we need to shift our focus to who our real source is. In the 17th century, Brother Lawrence in his classic book Practicing his Presence wrote, “If a Christian is to truly practice the presence of his Lord and do so properly, then the heart of that Christian must be empty of all else. . . .God cannot be the only possessor of our heart unless it is empty of all else.” As I look back at various stages of my life, what has filled up my heart? Have I been empty of my own ambition and my dreams so that He could fill me with his presence and purpose? As with most motivational questions, it is not easy one to answer.
Paul sheds some light of a proper motivation. He prayed, “. . . out of his glorious riches may he strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.” (Eph. 3:16-19) Being filled with God should be our goal at every stage of life and particularly this one.
Most of us have kept busy throughout life, including doing lots of things for God. But were we keeping busy in order to avoid the feeling of emptiness? Emptiness is usually seen as a bad thing and so we avoid it at all costs. Throughout our lives we have provide answers and solutions for others and yet God desires us to be empty of ourselves so that he can fill us with himself. Ironically, being willing to be emptied at this stage our life is the key to keeping the faith and finishing our race. While we think of “emptying” as a negative experience, throughout Scripture we see that God always filled empty vessels. Some examples include the story of Creation, he fill man with his breath, or the woman with the empty jars (2 Kings 4:1-7). She was to gather empty jars and God filled them with oil, it only stopped flowing once there were no more empty jars.
Of course the greatest example is Jesus himself (Phil. 2). The fancy Greek word for emptying is Kenosis. In Phil. 2, we see that he emptied himself of his divine prerogatives to take on the nature of a servant. As fellow servants should we do any less? If we do not allow God to empty us, it is likely we will not be filled by him. If we are too full of our own dreams, visions, ambitions, he will not push his way in. God is best experienced in a place of vulnerability, the vulnerability of recognizing our need to rely on him. It is in our weakness that he is strong. When we are in trouble or desperate he shows up in our lives. As we enter this final stage of our lives we need to be willing to consider what God may be wanting to empty us of, so that he can fill us with himself.
As we consider our own lives, Are you open to being vulnerable as Jesus was and allow him to empty you? In what areas do you need to allow him to meet you in your need?
True Success
I previously introduced you to Oswald Chambers, who of course needs no introduction! He writes, “Beware of any work for God which enables you to evade concentration on him. A great many Christian workers worship their work.” As we have seen, this is subtle and does not happen overnight. And while we always have to guard against this, this season can provide us with the greatest opportunity to do so. How we have defined success in our lives will determine what our priorities and goals will be in the final phase of our life. Early in our life and ministry, success may have meant a bigger ministry, a prestigious career or large bank account, however, as we age we come to realize that these do not necessarily define success. “Success” in the final stages of our life has more to do with being engaged in doing something significant. Ultimately, significance is more important than success (Rom. 12:9-21).
Living a life of significance has more to do with investing in others, mentoring and coaching people, rather than building our own kingdom. This requires switching our focus from doing more activities to doing the right activities. Instead of gaining meaning in life by just doing more, we can learn to be content by focussing on what really matters. For some, this is a huge shift and requires a change of values and time priorities. Paul reminds us to, “make it our ambition to lead a quiet life: You should mind your own business and work with your hands, just as we told you. . .” (1 Thess. 4:11-12).
One of the characteristics of youth is being in a rush to reach our goals. Solomon writes, “Better one handful with tranquility than two handfuls with toil and chasing after the wind.” (Ecc. 4:6) I remember in my twenties, I was like a wound up elastic band ready to be launched to the mission field, ready to make my mark on the world and do great things for God. While I had felt a call to mission from childhood, which was then confirmed as a teenager, in my twenties it seemed like life was conspiring against this ever happening. How was I going to reach the whole world if I didn’t get a quick start. Meanwhile, God was more concerned with making me into the kind of person that would make the right kind of impact and so he delayed my launch until he had taught me some tough lessons. Maybe you can relate to that from your own life.
But as we age we tend to learn to be a bit more patient. We eventually realize that the race of life is a marathon and not a sprint. We have the opportunity in this season to focus on the Lord’s plans and his schedule, rather than our plans and schedule. True success means that we focus on accomplishing his calling in our lives, not just our own ambitions. It is about spending our last years building his kingdom and not our kingdom. This will definitely be tested during our last stage of life. Will we choose success according to the world’s standards, or will we have the courage to focus on the less spectacular task of leaving behind something of significance in the lives of others?
As we wrap up this episode, let’s consider the following. What is your idea of success? How has this changed over the years? As you look to the future what steps do you want to take in order to live a life of significance?
In this last section of our series we are considering what it will take to leave a legacy. As we have been discussing in this episode, our perspective is crucial. How do we view where we are at in relation to where we have been? Then I suggested that unless we are empty enough, God cannot fill us moving forward. While this is true during every season of life, it is really important as the runway gets shorter. Finally, we have seen that to finish our race we will likely have to redefine what success really is, switching from our ambitions to focusing on doing something of significance. In our next episode we are going to discuss some questions that address our motivations and how we can use these to move forward during the last third of our productive lives. I hope you’ll be able to join me again.