Young at Heart

We're having some long overdue work done to our house and the other day the contractor was in the house talking to my wife and looking at something that needed to be done. Our contractor went to school with our daughter, and she noticed a photograph of us taken shortly after we became a couple, and before we were married I think. She said, "Wow, you two were cute then". Notice the word "were", past tense, as in a very long time ago (it's a good thing we like our contractor). The two of us have been together for thirty years now, and I'll admit that we don't look like we did in that photograph, but we don't look OLD either; I think we're still cute! Slowly over the last thirty years how we look to others has changed, although how we look to each other hasn't. I suppose we've lost some youthful luster and the beauty of our youth is gone, and I'll admit that it can be depressing to realize that gravity is winning.

It's also a bit depressing to notice that children, including high school kids and college freshman, all look so young. We still think of our kids as being kids, but since our oldest grandchildren are as tall as we are it's time to re-evaluate. There are basically two signs that you're getting older: 1) You realize that the person in the mirror is older than you thought, and 2) the children you see all around you are also older than you think. Luckily, at this age we can rely on an important distinction; what we look like on the outside and who we are on the inside are very separate things. I can honestly say that although I no longer feel like I'm 24, I don't feel old because my spirit is not old.

Our Christian religion is about new things and what matters the most is the spirit of the individual believer. Saint Paul spoke of this when he wrote, "I appeal to you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that you may prove what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect (Romans 12:1-2)." Paul isn't just talking about being young at heart, he is speaking of something more profound; the inner person that stays forever new. The act of worship renews our spirit, which is how we stay forever young and renewed: It is the power of faith. The authors of the Bible bear witness to what they experienced in their own lives, and I hope that we not only live this life of renewal but also bear witness to it. What matters in the end is not that gravity is winning, but the condition of our spirit.