I’m actually feeling a little older these days. Another birthday around the corner, coupled with a sore back and then very sore legs after soccer last Saturday … well, I’m simply falling to bits! The inevitable is inevitable, old age besets us all.

I’ve been visiting elderly people for years and one day some young, upstart of a minister might be visiting me in a nursing home. The writer of Ecclesiastes, probably King David, lamented the onset of old age. “Remember your Creator in the days of your youth, before the days of trouble come and the years approach when you will say, ‘I find no pleasure in them’” (Ecc 12:1).

God understands every phase of our lives. The knees which tremble, the grinders that become few, the sounds of birds growing feint and the eyes becoming dim. “Then people go to their eternal home and mourners go about the streets” (Ecc 12.5).

John Chapman wrote a book, “Making the Most of the Rest of Your Life”. He says in the Preface,

I am 76 years old. You may think it strange that I am writing about making the most of the rest of our lives. Humanly speaking, I don’t have all that much left. The average male lives for 79 years. That doesn’t leave me much time. On the other hand, if there is life after death, if eternity is really eternity and I have the greater bulk of my life to look forward to, then that makes all the difference. If there is life after death, is it possible to make the most of it? Is it possible to prepare for that life, or is it totally a matter of chance? These are the questions I want to address in this short book.

Please don’t think that because you are old you are no good for anything. Old age is a blessing from God. Every church needs the blessing of older people. We need your wisdom, your godliness, your prays and your counsel. But this respect does not come automatically. As Paul says to Titus, “Teach the older men to be temperate, worthy of respect, self-controlled, and sound in faith, in love and in endurance” (Tit 2:2). Likewise, Paul says, the older women are “to be reverent in the way they live” (Tit 2:3).

No matter how old we are, let’s make the most of the rest of our life. Investing in the gospel is never a waste of time. Whilst the things of this world come and go, the fruit of faith in the Lord Jesus lasts for eternity. True religion brings us in touch with reality. As the gospel shapes our lives, we grow in holiness as we share the gospel with those around us. As the Apostle Paul says, “Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourself fully to the work of the Lord because you know that your labour in the Lord is not in vain” (1 Cor 15:58).