You’re Never Too Old To Tell People About God

If you always do what you always did, you’ll always get what you always got.

“Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?”

— Isaiah 43:18-19

I had the honor and privilege recently to go on an international mission trip with an 84-year-old man. Yes, you read that right. He was 84 years old.

One day during a lull in our mission we started to talk. And I asked him, “What drove you to go on a mission trip now?”

He told me he had lived an interesting life. He had made money, lost everything and made some more. He had buried his parents, two brothers and 19 dogs. He had lost a home to fire. Fought in a war. And baptized three children, eight grandchildren, 16 great-grandchildren and two great-great-grandchildren in the same little white-washed Methodist Church.

“Well, Brother Troy,” he said with a heavy sigh. “To answer your question, I asked God one day if my time here on this world was done.”

“What was the answer,” I inquired after a long pause.

“All I could think about was, if I’m still breathing, I can still tell people about what Jesus has meant to me in my life” he said wistfully. Then he added, “I thought I seen it all and done it all. I thought I was losing everything because I can’t work, the doctors have me on more pills than I can count and I’m not sure if I have enough money to go another year.”

He looked at me in as serious a manner as I had seen him and continued, “Then one day I prayed that if I couldn’t do anything else in this world, then for God to go ahead and take me. After I prayed, I picked up my Bible, flipped it open and started to read the first verse I saw. It was Isaiah 43. And I knew right then and there, God had answered my prayer. Just not the answer I wanted.”

In Genesis 46 we see an old man who thought his usefulness in life was over. Jacob had served God faithfully throughout his life. He had moved from here to there. Had fought with men for the honor of God and had thought he lost his favorite son. He didn’t think he would go anywhere else in life. He thought his travelling days were over and the Promised Land was the stretch of ground where he had pitched his tent.

But then one day, God called his name.

“Jacob! Jacob!” the Bible says in verse two. Not just a whisper in the night. Not just a notion of Jacob’s imagination. Not just a puff of wind he could explain away. But a great and powerful voice that boomed out of the sky.

“Jacob!!!! Jacob!!!” God screamed.

God told Jacob that night not to be afraid. To go see his once lost son. To go to a new place and do a new thing. To stop worrying about today and forget about the past. Because our God is a God of new things and you’re never too old to tell the world about God’s grace!

When God calls your name, it’s never just to reminisce. It’s never to talk about the good ol’ days. About past glories and remembered achievements. When God calls your name, it’s to always to do a new thing. A new and glorious and sometimes even crazy thing.

And that is the greatest blessings of all. Having a God who knows us by name. And one who knows our best days are always tomorrow. Let us pray. Dear God, We thank you that you are never finished with us. When we think we can do no more, you show us that we can. Let our words, our deeds and our actions this day show glory unto you. In Christ’s name we pray. Amen.

The Blessings of Our Lord Jesus Christ Be With You!