Nothing Better To Do
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Warning: Bible quotes ahead. Sharper than any two-edged sword.
6 Then the children of Judah came unto Joshua in Gilgal: and Caleb the son of Jephunneh the Kenezite said unto him, Thou knowest the thing that the Lord said unto Moses the man of God concerning me and thee in Kadeshbarnea.
7 Forty years old was I when Moses the servant of the Lord sent me from Kadeshbarnea to espy out the land; and I brought him word again as it was in mine heart.
8 Nevertheless my brethren that went up with me made the heart of the people melt: but I wholly followed the Lord my God.
9 And Moses sware on that day, saying, Surely the land whereon thy feet have trodden shall be thine inheritance, and thy children's for ever, because thou hast wholly followed the Lord my God.
10 And now, behold, the Lord hath kept me alive, as he said, these forty and five years, even since the Lord spake this word unto Moses, while the children of Israel wandered in the wilderness: and now, lo, I am this day fourscore and five years old.
11 As yet I am as strong this day as I was in the day that Moses sent me: as my strength was then, even so is my strength now, for war, both to go out, and to come in.
12 Now therefore give me this mountain, whereof the Lord spake in that day; for thou heardest in that day how the Anakims were there, and that the cities were great and fenced: if so be the Lord will be with me, then I shall be able to drive them out, as the Lord said.
13 And Joshua blessed him, and gave unto Caleb the son of Jephunneh Hebron for an inheritance.
-- Joshua 14:6-13*
30 Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall:
31 But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.
-- Isaiah 40:30-31
I’ve never been shy about telling others my age – or my weight. The only time I was depressed about getting older was on my 30th birthday. On that day, I walked from my apartment to the corner liquor store to buy a bottle of wine. When I went to pay for it, the man behind the counter demanded – rather rudely – to see my ID. Puzzled, I handed it to him, and his face changed.
“Wow. Today is your thirtieth birthday.”
“Yes.”
“I thought you were some teenager, in here trying to illegally buy some booze.”
I smiled. “Oh.”
“Happy Birthday.”
I went away considerably less depressed, and I’ve never been concerned about my age since.
It was only a few years after that birthday when Jesus got ahold of me.
A couple of months ago, weeks after my 60th birthday, I got into a disagreement with a random person on Twitter. Be advised: generally, I toy with randos on social media for my own amusement, though, blessedly, sometimes we come to an understanding and end up following each other. The latter, of course, are in the minority of cases. This was not one of those.
I was enjoying the exchange, however, it happened on a Sunday morning. So, without notice, I left off troll-chewing, began to get ready and soon the conversation was forgotten. I got ready, got moving, arrived, and was in my seat for regular Sunday worship with my mind on the Lord.
Hours later when I returned home and got back on Twitter, the person was lambasting me for “being a coward “and not answering whatever question he/she had proffered.
“Dude. I have higher priorities on Sundays: church.”
Troll: “Well what else do old-ass women have to do?”
I have since added the hashtag #OldAssWoman to my Twitter profile. This is proof that trolls have uses.
It wasn’t the first time that I had been “criticized” for failing to have died young. And what is that about, really?
This missive isn’t intended to celebrate the greatness of old people in general or old women in particular. It is to celebrate the greatness of God and of some of His blessings available when we walk in His way.
Caleb and Joshua were the only two ancient Hebrews who had been born in Egypt and who got to live in the land promised to their tribe. That’s two out of millions. How they got there: faith and obedience. As mentioned in the passage, Caleb was 85 when he made his request to Joshua – the leader of the tribe – and Joshua was roughly the same age. Both had all their marbles and Caleb says that he was as bad a motherfather at 85 as he was at 40. Faith and no processed foods.
And Isaiah points to God’s promise that if we wait on the Lord for [insert thing waited for here], He will renew our strength in whatever form that strength takes.
Now we all know that there are faithful people who have died relatively young or who have suffered from physical/mental maladies in old age. This tells me that the strength mentioned isn’t necessarily physical or mental. And one thing we all have to keep in mind is this: those who die and go to Heaven always have their strength made new. Always.
This includes our crazy, delusional ways of thinking while we are here on this earth — things like the notion that it’s bad to be old and that old people don’t have choices.
However, it is indeed true that I have nothing better to do on any given Sunday than to corporately worship my God, in addition to privately worshiping Him on the other six days.
Because whether one is old or young, there is nothing better.
*Bible quotes are KJV.
Nothing better than leaving a troll to stew in their own miserable juices for several hours.