Devotional Messages

DEVOTIONAL MESSAGE

Psalm 71:17-18 – O God, from my youth you have taught me, and I still proclaim your wondrous deeds.  So even to old age and gray hairs, O God, do not forsake me, until I proclaim your might to all the generations to come. (NRSV)

One of the most wonderful things about churches – especially smaller churches – is how we get to live life together across the generations.  In the rest of our lives, at work, in school, we mostly spend time with people our own age.  If we’re not part of a congregation, our families may be the only place we interact with people of different generations.  And for some, even that may be limited.

One of the hardest things we do in life is get older.  Just when we think we’ve got things relatively figured out, everything shifts and we’re in a different place in life, whether it’s starting high school, adulthood, middle age, old age, or really old age.  It can be confusing and frustrating, as new responsibilities or limitations become our new reality.

Some people live their whole lives fighting this inevitability or trying to deny the aging process.  Others manage to embrace each season of life as it arrives, modeling for the rest of us a gracious response to growing old.  Being part of an intergenerational congregation gives us the chance to witness the aging process as lived out by people who have spent their whole lives putting their trust in God.  When we are afraid of what may come, we can look around at others who have gone before us and feel the reassurance that comes from watching lives well lived.

Learning to age gracefully is just one of the many gifts of a community of faith.  If we proclaim God’s wondrous deeds together – young, old and in-between – all generations will receive blessing.