Aging has a way of sneaking up on us. You know you're getting old when ...
- You willingly go to bed at 9:00 every night.
- You alone in your family knows how to drive a stick shift.
- You still give paper quizzes.
- You prefer a desktop to a laptop.
- You use punctuation in text messages.
- You were born in a territory that doesn't exist anymore.
- You know what Wake Forest looked like before it was swallowed up by Raleigh.
- It takes you forever to scroll to find your birth year on an online form.
- You don't understand current jargon, but you don't care.
- Ear hair seems to grow exponentially.
- The music you grew up with is now called Classic Rock.
- You're okay with fewer friends.
- All your students were born after 9/11.
- You hate iPhone updates.
- The first number of your age begins with a 7.
- You have grandkids in college.
- You start finding "boring" websites interesting (e.g., American Battlefield Trust).
- You remember how your exegesis classes had 45 students (instead of 6) before online education took over.
I would also add:
- Your longing for heaven is stronger than ever.
This week in our Philippians class we'll be exegeting Phil. 1:19-26. This passage contains the famous verse:
"For to me to live is Christ and to die is gain."
The words roll off the tongue. There's an unforgettable beauty and symmetry to them. Many of us have memorized them.
Paul had two options in front of him, and both were desirable. Both were good options. In life, Paul knows that he will be able to bear more fruit for Christ. In death, he knows that departing this life is desirable because he will go and be with Christ. For Paul, there was nothing greater than being in the eternal presence of Christ his master. To this point in his life he's tasted the appetizer of fellowship with Christ on earth. But he's longing for the main course. His metaphorical mouth waters at the idea of being with Christ for eternity.
That's why he can talk rather bizarrely about desiring death. He knows that through death he'll possess and enjoy Jesus forever. Nothing could possibly be better than that. But in the meantime, life for Paul means Christ as he loves and serves him day after day and year after year. So if he goes on living, he lives to bear fruit for Christ. The Living Bible puts it beautifully: "For to me, living means opportunities for Christ, and dying -- well, that's better yet!" In essence Paul is saying, "If living will give me more opportunities to win people to Christ, then I really don't know which is better, to live or to die!"
Which leads me to ask: "Is my desire to live longer primarily because I long to be useful and fruitful through Christ to others?" Paul was willing to forego being in the presence of Christ in glorious eternity for the sake of the gospel. Am I?
That same level of preparedness ought to mark our attitude toward Christ's long-heralded second coming. We ought to live in anticipation that it could happen tomorrow. Or, for that matter, today. Our hearts should be ready, our lives in order, our priorities correct. As the saying goes,
Only one life,
'twill soon be past.
Only what's done for Christ
will last.