My 59th Birthday! What’s Another Year?

June 1st just marked my 59th Birthday. As we grow older, most of use don’t like to be reminded of our age and wish we could reverse the aging process.  Looking younger becomes the reason for many choices we make.  We buy certain clothes that make us “look younger”.  We change hair styles for a “younger looking” look.  If our hair begins to turn grey, we dye it.  The desire to appear younger than we are has generated a multi-million dollar industry. Its big business in America.  No one wants to look old and we do our best to avoid it.  We just finished attending the International Foursquare Convention where we saw pastors and friends who we haven’t seen for a year or two.  Some remarked that my hair is turning grey since the last time time they saw me.  I told them, “That means I know something” .  The Bible says, “The young glory in their strength but the old are honored by their grey hair”. (Prov. 20:29) Thus, on this, my 59th Birthday, as I see the grey filling in upon my head, I consider it a sign of honor and even a sign of wisdom that can only be known in time.  There is no short cut to wisdom, no fast way to get it.  Maturity and wisdom will always demand the passage of time to be realized.  Thus, if anyone wants to wish me a “Happy Birthday” may it be a wish for the added wisdom that comes with the passage of yet another year.

Roger Smets