Fresh and Flourishing and Full of Energy

Just saw a little thing on Facebook, perhaps you’ve seen it, too: A sign that breaks down the stages of life into three categories:

• Teen Age: Have Time + Energy … but No Money
• Working Age: Have Money + Energy … but No Time
• Old Age: Have Time + Money … but No Energy

This was said in jest, of course, but even in jest it can have a powerful influence on the way one thinks. We start talking it, we start thinking it, we start believing it … and we might well end up receiving it. My mouth, my mind, my heart and my life were created for better things than that. And I have better things to confess and look forward to when I get old:

Bless the LORD, O my soul …
Who satisfies your mouth with good things,
So that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.

(Psalm 103:5)

My wife and I have added this to our table grace at meal times: “You satisfy our desires with good things and renew our youth like the eagle’s. (The other day, Suz asked if I had noticed that my hair is getting darker. Maybe. Sometimes it does look that way to me.)

We are both in our fifties — we call it “middle age,” because we expect to live a long time. But one day when we reach “old age” (maybe when we are about 90 or so), we are looking forward to good things because of the goodness of the LORD.

The righteous shall flourish like a palm tree,
He shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon.
Those who are planted in the house of the LORD
Shall flourish in the courts of our God.
They shall still bear fruit in old age;
They shall be fresh and flourishing,
To declare that the LORD is upright;
He is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in Him.

(Psalm 92:12-15)

Instead of saying that we will have no energy when we are old, this is our confession*:

The LORD satisfies our desires with good things and renews our youth like the eagle’s. We will still bear fruit in old age. We will be fresh and flourishing in His courts, and full of energy to declare that our lives our built on Him, and He is right in all He does.

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Personal Confessions from the Psalms
Prayers and Affirmations for a Life of Faith, Happiness and Awe in God
by Jeff Doles

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Available in paperback and Kindle (Amazon), epub (Google and iTunes) and PDF.