Plenty of Time for R and R in the Resurrection

Excerpts from John Piper post:  What Happens When You Turn 65

Turning 65 in January has me all fired up to get busy. I am close enough to the finish line that the face of Jesus is coming into sharper focus. This is very exciting and makes me want to pick up the pace.

Of course, he is not the least impressed with frenzy. Nor is he pleased with Boomer indolence. What his face says to me is: “I am your rest every day, and there is good work to do every day till you’re home.

God has called me to this one great thing, and his face affirms it every day: “With full courage, now (after 65) as always, let Christ be magnified in your body, whether by life or by death” (Philippians 1:20). Live now to make much of Christ. Measure everything by this: Will it help more people admire Jesus more intensely and treasure Jesus more deeply?

 ...

Turning 65 has set me to pondering what people have done in their later years.


 ...


So I started poking around on the Internet. Here’s some of what I found (for example, at www.museumofconceptualart.com/accomplished):

• At 65 Winston Churchill became Prime Minister of England, and for the next five years led the Western world to freedom.

• At 69 English writer and lexicographer Samuel Johnson began his last major work, The Lives of the English Poets.

• At 69 Ronald Reagan became the oldest man ever sworn in as President of the United States. He was reelected at 73.

• At 70 Benjamin Franklin helped draft the Declaration of Independence.

...


And don’t forget, if you are running this marathon with Jesus, you have a great advantage. God has promised you: “Even to your old age I am he, and to gray hairs I will carry you. I have made, and I will bear; I will carry and will save” (Isaiah 46:4). Nothing to be ashamed of here. We’ve been dangling in the yoke of Jesus ever since he called us. At out peak, we were totally dependent. So it will be to the end.

So, all you Boomers just breaking into Medicare, gird up your loins, pick up your cane, head for the gym, and get fit for the last lap. Fix your eyes on the Face at the finish line. There will plenty of time for R and R in the Resurrection. For now, there is happy work to be done.