In my early sixties I often contemplate what God is calling me to do in what some would say are my ‘Autumn Years’!
I am not as fit as I used to be, I'm overweight, my energy levels are much lower and my body is wearing out. You know that you have reached this time of life when you need a shopping bag to collect your prescriptions from the chemist.
It sometimes seems that I am living out a part in a TV sitcom like ‘One foot in the grave’ or ‘Waiting for God’.
I was reading the book of Job recently and came across a passage that says ‘as I was in my prime, when the friendship of God was upon my tent,’ (Job 29:4). Apparently the Hebrew can also be translated to ‘as I was in the autumn of my life’. The commentator went on to make the comparison that autumn is a time for harvesting and picking the ripe fruit.
So as we grow older it is not a time to slow down and simply wait for God but an opportunity to get involved in the community and bring in the harvest. As Jesus once said, ‘I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest.’ (John 4:35b).
