Day 26 - Issue 23
Titus 2:1 NLT
'As for you, Titus, promote the kind of living that reflects wholesome teaching.'
We take health seriously in the UK. We prize our physical well-being, while improved nutrition, lifestyle and medical advances mean we can anticipate a longer and healthier lifespan. Indeed, the silver economy is a critical target market, and a rapidly expanding holiday industry is built upon the over-50s demographic.
Scripture offers no criticism of exotic holidays or their frequency. It does, however, speak of the responsibilities that accompany ageing. I have reflected often, privately and in conversations with others, on my disappointment that ‘Mr Angry’ who developed within me as I grew up, still exists. The root of this unacceptable and unattractive behaviour today wounds me as much, if not more, than it wounds others. People have told me that some feel frightened by me. I have little understood this, because I am at times unaware that what they experience is anger. It truly does sober me, and when I recognise I have had an angry outburst, I carry the disappointment for days.
As the family of God there is an essential role for those who are older. If I embraced Christianity enthusiastically as a naive 19-year-old, I desperately needed to see ahead of me people who had road-tested the truths I’d accepted and discovered they were both practical and stood the stress tests of time. Now, as one of those seniors, what example is my life and behaviour to others?
Spiritual health is an essential part of our overall well-being. It comes from diligent application to the ways of God and is realised through the work of the Spirit. Many moving into the autumn of their lives map out a retirement plan that addresses their finances, their use of leisure time, relationships with children and grandchildren, but there is often an empty page beneath the title, ‘Spiritual Practice’. This is the page where we each recognise the good of God in our life, find ways to make visible all we know through experience of him to others, acknowledge and work on the loose ends and finish well with him.
QUESTION: What are your thoughts about your spiritual health?
PRAYER: Lord, may the fruit of your gospel lead me to wisdom in my way of life.
