We live in a culture that celebrates youth, vitality, and looks. This past year I turned 45 and I have found myself in an unusual place. I’m no longer considered young, and neither am I considered old. It’s an unusual place as I am still trying to figure out what I want the second half of my life to look like.
If we aren’t careful, we can find ourselves thinking that we are on the downward slope of things, but I refuse to accept this lie. Statistically speaking the most productive years of someone’s life is in their fifties through their seventies. By national statistics, the next twenty years of my life should be the most productive. I should be able to contribute the most to my family, the kingdom, and to society.
Now that I am a little older, I feel like I can contribute more to those around me. I now have more wisdom to offer through education and through life experience. I constantly remind people that the world needs what you have. People need your gift.
At the end of the day, I always go back to the word of God and believe what it says about me. There are two scriptures that I have found to be comforting when I consider the next several years of my life:
“Even in old age they will still produce fruit; they will remain vital and green” (Psalm 92:14).
Another one that I pray and profess quite frequently is, “So the Lord blessed Job in the second half of his life even more than in the beginning” (Job 42:12).
I want to encourage you to stay the course in your life and to believe that the Lord has “saved the best till now” (John 2:10).
