I’m Just Getting Started! (You’re not too old)

2 Cor. 4:15-18

In his book on mortality, Oliver Burkeman points out that everyone is busy all the time. “What they aren’t, though, is overwhelmed. They exude the cheery self-possession of cats and pigs who have plenty to do, but also every confidence that their tasks will fit snugly into the hours available—whereas we live with the constant anxiety of fearing, or knowing, for certain, that ours won’t” The realization that we are mortal can lead us to be either fearful or grateful to God for the gift of life.

In 2 Corinthians, Paul surveys his past few years and details great hardship. Believers can expect to go through suffering. But many can be caught off guard with what Paul then writes. As grace extends to more people, he says, “It may increase thanksgiving to God” (4:15).

Grace can spread to others, and people can be the vessel of that grace, even while they are suffering. Your response to suffering, and especially the amount of Christlikeness that flows out of you during those moments, can be a gift of grace to other people. You not living for yourself! You’re living so God can get the glory out of your life!

Suffering can come in all forms, and it isn’t always the extreme examples Paul lists earlier in the chapter. It can also come in the form of aging.

Life is a gift from God. But it has an end (on this side of heaven), and unfortunately for many, as the end approaches, the quality of the gift deteriorates.

Nevertheless, God’s will for believers is to rejoice always or to thank God through the aging process.

Outwardly we will waste away (v. 16), but that isn’t the end of the story.

Something happens internally, where no one can see it. And that leads to renewal and hope (not losing heart).

Life is short, and the moments of suffering, while they may seem unbearably long, are also only momentary experiences (4:17).

In the general experience of aging, we can learn lessons that help us thank God through that process.

While aging, believers can take stock of these afflictions and remember that over the course of our life, this suffering will pass.

Second, aging and approaching the end of life encourages believers to focus on the things that can’t be seen.

In doing so, we remember that the things we see are temporary, but those we can’t see, like God, are eternal (4:18).

Closing:

There is a story of an elderly man who became ill and ended up in the ICU for over a month and in the hospital for over two months. Thirty days into the stay, a chaplain came to visit and asked him how their prayer life was. The patient responded, “It is great. Prayer is the only thing I’ve been able to focus on and do for the last thirty days.” Sometimes it takes a hospital bed to put us in a position where we switch our focus to the things unseen.