Step into that time machine called imagination and let yourself be transported back to the year 1954. The United States is recovering from three years of military action in Korea. The dating scene finds young couples going to see “7 Brides for 7 Brothers” and “The Creature from the Black Lagoon.” Rock and roll erupts onto music industry with Bill Haley’s “Rock Around the Clock. The U.S. House of Representatives investigates a glut of oil that lowered gas prices while the Senate investigates a sharp rise in coffee prices. Our national economy is textile-driven and over a third of workers belong to a union. A typical middle-class home is eight hundred square feet and costs about $7000. 1954 was also the first year you could purchase a Swanson TV dinner of turkey, yams, and peas.
That was over 71 years ago. Seven full decades. 1954 was my birth year. Anything 71 years old is, well, old! Welcome to my generation. We are often referred to as boomers. For me, turning seventy was a magical milestone. I never thought I would live this long, but here I am. I am battling the aches and stiffness that usually accompany the aging process. I have become accustomed to hearing doctors say, “At your age…”
I spend a good bit of time reflecting on the past, encouraged by how God has prepared me for opportunities, walked with me through them and enabled me to grow through them. Some of those opportunities included dark valleys of pain and loss. Others were glorious mountain tops. All of them have been Today I am eagerly anticipating the next seventy years or more likely the next year. As good as life has been, I believe God’s best for us is always ahead. The apostle Paul wrote these words to the Philippian Church, and they are key to finishing well. “No, dear brothers and sisters, I have not achieved it, but I focus on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us.”
Whatever has happened or is happening in your life, both good and bad, can be used by God to prepare you for opportunities to serve Him at a greater level. Whether you are sixteen or seventy-six, God’s best days for you are still ahead. They might be fewer than you have already lived but strive to finish well. As you yield yourself for His use, you will continue to find a sense of purpose and fulfillment that can never be earned or purchased. Let go of the past and fully surrender your life and future to Him.
