Daily Digest #54

Those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength. —Isaiah 40:31

By default, we dread aging. When we turn 32, we are saddened by the fact that our age does not belong to the maximum number of days in the calendar anymore. We worry that our skins would wrinkle and sag, our hairs would fall off or turn gray, our knees would shake and our backs would crouch in the years to come... All those years of trying to look young and beautiful would soon end. But what is really so bad about that when we know that our earthly bodies would die and return to dust once again?

I am reminded of the book "Tuesdays With Morrie". When Mitch asked Morrie about the fear of aging, he answered, "As you grow old, you learn more. If you stayed at twenty-two, you'd always be as ignorant as you were at twenty-two. Aging is not just decay, you know. It's growth. It's more than the negative that you're going to die, its also the positive that you understand you're going to die, and that you live a better life because of it." He feels that once people have found meaning in their lives, they never want to go back and be young again. He feels that if your life has meaning you will want to progress forward with age by doing more things, seeing more and learning more.

May we grow in spirit as time passes. May we learn about the most valuable things in life. May we not focus so much on our physical appearances. Men are concerned about the beauty on the outside, while God is more concerned about what's inside. May we assess ourselves and our priorities. Pray always.