Renewal

I don’t care what the celebrities or the “real people, not actors” claim, there really is no fountain of youth.  It doesn’t matter how many years we say that we’re celebrating our 29^th birthday, the reality is that we’re rotting away.  The Apostle Paul says it plainly, “Outwardly we are wasting away…”  It’s just a fact of life.  But as terminal as this may sound, Paul doesn’t put a period here.  In the same breath Paul says, “…yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day” (II Corinthians 4:16).  What does Paul mean when he says this?  What does it even look like? 

I’ve been blessed because I have a couple of examples in my life.  My friend Jim is ninety three years and counting.  Every time I speak with Jim, he tells me that God’s been good to him with a sparkle in his eyes.  I see the same sparkle and hear the same declaration from another friend whose name is also Jim.  While there’s a big difference in their ages and their life experiences are on the opposite ends of the spectrum, they both have tapped into the same wellspring of life.

To me, it’s obvious that they know the One who said, “Even to your old age and gray hairs, I am He, I am He who will sustain you.  I have made you and I will carry you; I will sustain and I will rescue you” (Isaiah 46:4).  I hear the same adoration that Paul had with the Guy as he proclaimed, “Being confident of this, that He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus” (Philippians 1:6).

What I see and hear makes me long for what these men have.