Excerpts from Aging With Grace by Sharon W. Better & Susan Hunt

                                                             

Today I sit and wait.  Yesterday it was a sinus headache day.  I did what needed to be done and then I vegged like a useless potato.  As I age, I'm seeing that I don't push back against lagging energy like I used to.   Today is better - so far - I exercised - I got some soup going.  I don't have anything pressing today (although my calendar shows this is not going to be the case next week where it will pick up dramatically.)   But the  uselessness of yesterday began to  morph into today so that instead of thankfulness that I have a day of rest - a day I would have given my right arm for in the past years of full time work - I'm feeling kind of useless.   Too much work, not enough purpose - good grief - can I never be content?

So the next thing I did was turn to the Lord, asking - What do I do with this day?  Next, I listlessly read a devotional on my phone,  and then, wham, I get the impression to write.  Now if that's not the Holy Spirit, I don't know what is! I am not always blessed with such quick answers.  Maybe this is something that needs to be shared - so I will - but maybe it's just for me - to record the simple power of lifting my eyes to the heavens. 

The devotional I just read was about how Satan attacks women in unique ways. For those in the throes of motherhood, the endless tedium of being in 24-7 servanthood weighs heavily.  Hormonal changes and other physical weaknesses, emotional or relationship issues can often become the guage of our spiritual state.  Although I am now in the "easy" years of retirement - the lack of energy that comes and goes can be demoralizing.  

And yet from my recent study on Aging With Grace by Sharon W. Betters and Susan Hunt, I am reminded again to sit and wait whether it is overwhelm from too much busyness I am fighting or the feeling of purposeless that attacks on a low energy day.  The attacks can come from any state!  But in this book, Jeremiah 6:16 is quoted:  "Stand by the roads, and look.  Ask for the ancient paths where the good way is: and walk in it, and find rest for your souls." 

Wait - not just in a vacumn of withdrawing - but wait on the Lord.  James 4:8 tells us:  "Draw near to God and He will draw near to you." Aging with Grace offers this bit of wisdom:  "God's grace is specific.  When it's time to suffer He gives suffering grace.  When it's timeto age, He gives aging grace.  When it's time to die, He gives dying grace."  I follow that wisdom inferring that when it's time to work, He gives working grace.  And when it's time to rest, He gives resting grace.  

So whether we are fighting the battles of motherhood, are in the throes of juggling a career and homelife, struggling physically, or just facing the diminishing physical abilities and energy of aging, the answer is the same:  find time to wait on the Lord.  Even for just a moment, find time to lift your eyes to Him. 

 One of the authors of the book was writing it when she encountered a physical setback where she fought days of fear and fatigue.  But as she continued to lift her eyes to the Lord on her unproductive days she was given the thought:  "This is not wasted time.  It is growing time, because my physical weakness and pain push me to trust Jesus more."  After all, Jesus gave these words both to Paul and to us:  "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness."  (2 Cor. 12:9)

She then asks this question:  "How often do we miss God's treasures because we don't recognize the little things as the big things?"  You might think that urge to write this morning was just a random thought.  I can't explain how I am absolutely assured that it was the Spirit that popped that surprising, not-remotely-on-my-radar thought into my mind. But the waiting that precipitated it caused me to recognize the truth of this quote from Elizabeth Elliot shared in the book:  "The place in which you find yourself is the very place where God is giving you the opportunity to look only to Him."  

Aging With Grace further shares this wisdom:  "As long as we live in this world , we are prone to look down.  But the rhythm of rest and daily worship (looking up)  recalibrates our minds and hearts in the present moment to remember our destiny and destination while "waiting for our blessed hope." (Titus 2:13)  Isaiah 40:31 echoes this thought:  "They who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength..."  The authors then remind us that waiting is an action word, and that "when we cling to Him (as we wait), a supernatural exchange slowly but surely happens, His strength becomes ours."  

One of the wise women who participated in the study on this book shared that she clung to this definition of hope that she was given along the way based on Habukkuk 3:19:  Hope is getting up, getting dressed and letting the Lord guide your steps that day - that the Lord will be your strength; He will give you hinds feet for high places.

The authors end with this thought on making the most of every day, even the hard ones:  "Flourishing at this time in my life is resting in Him, sitting with Him, and hearing Him speak to me from His Word, lifting others up in prayer, smiling at others for Him, giving a word of encouragement when He prompts and being still in Him."  

So I share this simple thought for the day that I needed - because it made my day.  I share it with the hope that it might make yours.  

Aging with Grace

The afternoon of life

Begins to take its toll

Slowing down is warranted

But we begin to feel less whole.

We're thankful we don't have to

Fight the daily race.

We appreciate the ability

To finally ease our pace.

And yet we begin to feel invisible

As if we no longer flourish.

Although we can turn to Him 

That's where we'll be nourished.

We can still abide in Him

Though our bodies age

We must guard against brittleness

As we reach this inevitable stage.

Gray hair is a crown of glory (Prov. 16:31)

A reward for righteous living.

Til the very end, we can find 

Reasons for thanksgiving.

Nowhere in the Word

Do we find the word retire

We do not lose heart

Though our bodies easily tire.

And so we travel heavenward

Day by sometimes painful day.

Knowing that always

By our side He'll stay.

If we but raise our eyes to Him

In Him we can abide

Though wasting away outwardly, (2 Cor. 4)

Every day He'll be our guide.

From Beast to Beauty

Last month I would not have seen the beauty of the mums that were newly planted at the entrance to our subdivision, but today, I was awed and transfixed by their gorgeous colors as I drove in.  I know that sounds "slightly overly" waxing poetic (if that's a thing), but you know what I mean:  when suddenly a sunset or a tree, or a morning full of birdsong stops you in your tracks and for me, my heart immediately turns to the Creator.  

Last month, I had a thyroid imbalance that turned my world to grey.  I wouldn't wish that on anyone. I can't even imagine what misery people with full grown lasting depression go through.  Mine I would describe as brain fog: couldn't make decisions, nothing tasted good, everything seemed too hard, I didn't feel like going places I usually love, I wanted to come home when I was anywhere.  My head was full of grumpy thoughts that I recognized as unnecessary and untrue but they kept popping into my brain nevertheless.  When I finally figured out what was going on, it only took two days to get me on-kilter but I told one friend that it scares me to be 25 miligrams of thyroid medication away from mental illness!!!  

A term popped out to me from the book I'm studying at church right now, Aging with Grace by Sharon W. Betters and Susan Grace.  In it they defined "aging with grace" as becoming an older woman that was life-giving instead of life-taking - in other words, not like the way I felt for the last month. But it was this sentence that stopped me short:  "The hope of glory is future, but there are very real implications right here and right now.  Our union with Christ results in a radical change from beast to beauty."

The challenge of this book is to not give up on ourselves as "too old to change" - that we can continue to grow in reflecting God's glory - in showing to others His mercy, graciousness, slowness to anger, steadfast love, faithfulness and forgiveness.  (Ex 34:6-7).  Our character, attitudes, and actions throughout our life may have been "beastly" at times along the way, but that doesn't mean we can't be still growing in inner beauty.  As 2 Cor 4 tells us:  Therefore we do not lost heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, inwardly we are being renewed day by day... So we look to what is unseen, for the seen is only temporary." 

The authors aptly described the gladness we feel soley from temporal things - yes, even mums - as the beauty that the beast (the humanness within) us looks for from people, things and circumstances.  And as our bodies change as we age, so can our spirits if we just look to what we see.  After all, winter comes, the mums fade, and so do we. It seemly totally poetic a few weeks ago when at my 50th!!! class reunion I looked at the scrolling monitor of all the classmates that have passed on, then picked up a yearbook displayed nearby... the black and white pictures were actually fading.  "Just like us," I said half-joking at this truth!!!  The authors speak to this: "We must guard against our hearts becoming brittle and bitter as the disappointments of life (and aging) continue to come, by praying for grace to abide in Christ and bear the fruit of steadfast love and faithfulness to others."

Elizabeth  Elliot who lost two husbands after getting married later in life says this about those hard places that can make us life-takers instead of givers:  "This hard place you find yourself in is the very place where God is giving you the opportunity to look only to Him; to spend time in prayer and to learn the depths of (His) love..." 

And so, today, I see the beauty of the fall splendor, but I don't just appreciate it in itself.   I use the moment of beauty to tame the beast inside by not just looking down at what this earth has to offer, but by looking up and praising.

Beauty Tames the Beast

Tale as old as time

True as it can be

We all get to an end

But something always bends

Unexpectedly.

Just a little change

Small, to say the least.

We all get a little scared

Never seem prepared

We lose beauty to the beast.

 Ever just the same

Ever a surprise

Ever as before

And ever just as sure

The sun will rise.  It’s pure…

 Truth that you were wrong

Though fear sometimes lasts long.

Certain as the sun

Rising in the east

We can fight the beast...

That rises deep within

And steals all of our joy.

But He always comes.

His light warm as the sun

His comfort will employ.

 Though the wait is long

And darkness fills our day

He will restore the light

No matter what the plight

If we but watch and pray.

The beast within screams loud

All seems gone to grey 

Beauty is all lost

Our heart a holocaust

It seems it's gone to stay. 

But His song  old as rhyme

Rises deep within

And beauty tames the beast,

Wait upon the feast

We’re promised every time.

Tale as old as time

Song as old as rhyme

We must fight the dark within

With Him we conquer sin

Beauty tames the beast.