Teague Bible Church

My aunt Lottie passed away last week at the age of 107. My mother is now the only survivor of ten kids. Mom is 95.
Aunt Lottie was a strong Christian, full of joy. Reading the obituary brought me back to times we used to make the 400 mile trip to Arkansas to visit her and the rest of the family.

On her 101st birthday she rode on the back of a chopper motorcycle through her small town of Star City , Arkansas. As she rode she would flash her own, made-up, gang signs to the people.

On her 102nd birthday she got to ride in a helicopter. At 103 a pool party. Yea, she went in the pool. She wanted to ride a bull at 104, but was out-muscled in the decision by supposedly wiser heads. She was still living at home, on her own, at 105.

We went down for the big party on her 100th birthday. My mom and her started to wrestle each other and fell over the coffee table and onto the floor. We all panicked, feeling that they would now be broken beyond repair! We heard wheezing coming from both of them. Surely they were struggling for air! No, turns out they were laughing. All good; they got up.

In that moment, just for a second, you could feel time standing still. We saw a flash -from- the-past gleam across their faces as two young sisters played together. We saw how they really felt inside; then it was back to the dominance of the physical body attempting to cover up two indomitable spirits. What a sight. What an unforgettable sight!

They told me that after a birthday party a few years back, they ended the birthday song with, “And many more.” She stopped them and responded, ” Oh no, please, not many more.” She would occasionally ask,” Why has God allowed me to live so long?”

Under that question lay an attitude we all share. Did I do that much good in all those years? Will it come to much? We cannot always see the forest for the trees, during our lifetime. If we keep giving, just to please the Lord, and engage the people in our sphere of influence, then we can rest in the fact that His will is being accomplished in our life; short or long.

Normally, you will not see every result of the wonderful impact you have on others, in your own lifetime. We want to see the result now; either for our own glory; or to comfort the insecurity we all feel living on this fallen planet.
No such thing is needed. Faithfulness is needed.

What we need is just to trust God that our life will be fruitful for His glory. One of the most wasteful and stupid ideas ever fostered upon the American public is the idea we call “retirement.”

We supposed to dread work and dream of retirement, not realizing that such an attitude for life and work will kill any possibility of joy in retirement. All facts are on my side in this evaluation. “Press on toward the upward call of God.”

My aunt went back to work, as a hairdresser, at a nursing home when she was 103. She did not buy into the retirement idea. She knew that if God called her, then no part of her time here was to be a wasting.

Psalms 90: 16-17 ” Let Your work appear to your servants and Your majesty to their children. Let the favor of the Lord be upon us; and confirm the work of our hands, yes, confirm the work of our hands.”

JWP