Good morning…
A handful of people disagreed with a quote I shared in our last post, a quote from John Mark Comer’s book Practicing the Way.
On page 74, Comer writes: “The spiritual teacher Pete Scazzero once told me a maxim that was passed on to him by an older, wiser mentor: ‘The best decade of your life will be your seventies, the second best will be your eighties, and the third best will be your sixties.’ By best he did not mean the happiest (though I expect that too) but our richest and most joyful and most helpful to others.”
In this Lenten season of self-reflection, lively thoughts were reflected back to me. “How can these be the best decades when plenty of people don’t live that long?” one person asked. Another said, “I’ve lost sight of the thought that our best years are ahead, as I have watched my parents’ suffer with so many health issues.” Still another person said, “There’s no way my seventies and eighties will be my best decades.” And another commented, “Just because this man says it does not mean that it’s true.” And I add my own wonderings about the ravages of Alzheimers, addictions, and ailments as we age.
To search for some stability in a sea of these questions, I returned to the book to read Comer’s follow up comments on page 75.
“Don’t get me wrong,” he writes, “there’s joy to be had all along the way. You could argue that joy is the defining feature of a life organized around God. But it’s rarely the explosive happiness of an emotional high, dramatic yet fickle and fleeting. It’s more like a quiet undercurrent that slowly accumulates at the base of your soul, increasingly welling up like a soft melody that over the years becomes the soundtrack of your life.”
“Formation into the image of Jesus isn’t something we do as much as it’s something that is done to us, by God himself, as we yield to the work of transforming grace,” explains Comer. “Our job is mostly to make ourselves available. …our job isn’t to self-save; it’s to surrender.”
If we live into our sixties, might we begin to make a shift from first half of life striving to second half of life thriving? Exhausted by trying to “successfully be all things to all people, all of the time,” surrendering to God can feel quite freeing. In humility, we start to yield to the work of the Spirit’s transforming grace, even as we are shaped by significant losses along life’s way. Noticing our own waning strength draining away, we shift from our way to God’s way, echoing the words of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane, “Father, if it’s your will, take this cup of suffering away from me. However, not my will but your will must be done” (Luke 22:42, CEB).
As we yield and surrender, again and again, we grow into the image of Jesus, who gave up his earthly life that we all might live with resurrection power from now into eternity. Might the life of our living Lord mature with in us, decade after decade? And the Lord—who is the Spirit—makes us more and more like him as we are changed into his glorious image (2 Corinthians 3:18b, NLT).
Quiet undercurrent.
Slowly accumulating.
Increasingly welling up.
The soft melody of Jesus’ joy becomes the soundtrack of our life.
So we have no reason to despair. Despite the fact that our outer humanity is falling apart and decaying, our inner humanity is breathing in new life every day. You see, the short-lived pains of this life are creating for us an eternal glory that does not compare to anything we know here. So we do not set our sights on the things we can see with our eyes. All of that is fleeting; it will eventually fade away. Instead, we focus on the things we cannot see, which live on and on (2 Corinthians 4:16-18, VOICE).
In our sixties, our seventies, and our eighties, with increasing intention, might we focus our inner sights on God’s invisible, eternal soundtrack? Our gradual formation into the image of Christ colors our final decades, and we breathe deeply with new life each day.
…Sue…
P.S. Wikipedia teaches us: “Peter Scazzero hosts the top ranked, Emotionally Healthy Leader Podcast and is the author of a number of bestselling books, including The Emotionally Healthy Leader, Emotionally Healthy Spirituality, and Emotionally Healthy Discipleship.”
