Am I Too Old to Matter?

by Larry Barker

The scriptures are clear: You are never too young to serve the Lord. God uses us in the midst of our lack of experience, knowledge, and readiness for the assignment He has given us. But do we ever get too old for the Lord to use us? Never! Yet we all wonder when is it time to step aside, retire, and not hold on so long that it begins to hurt the church or ministry?

You actually cannot find retirement in Scripture. Genesis 15:5 says, “He (God) took him (Abraham) outside and said, ‘Look at the sky and count the stars.’” Mark Batterson cautions that, “If we are not careful, we stop gazing at the stars, and start staring at the ceiling.”

God loves using you before you think you are ready and after you think you are done. When you stand before the Lord one day, you will not hear Him say, “well said,” “well thought out,”  “well planned,” or “well studied.”  What He will say is, “well done!”  

Christianity is about action, and orthodoxy is having the right beliefs, but orthopraxy is doing the right things. Dr. Dave DeVries reminds us in The Multiplication Workshop of the reality that you need all the right ingredients: 

The Cross + the Culture – the Community = No Church.  

The Community + The Cross – Culture = No Mission. 

The Culture + the Community – Cross = No Hope.

In Genesis 15, God promises a 99-year-old Abraham that He will keep His covenant and promise to him. Then God takes him outside so he will quit functioning only by what he could see in his tent and focus instead on the limitless vastness of the stars and His universe. Let’s refuse to simply stare at our ceiling assuming that age, experience, qualifications, credentials, and education (all important and good things) can limit our limitless God. Logic questions God, but faith refuses to put limitations on Him. Spiritual maturity is not determined by your five-year plan but rather your ability to remain sensitive to the moment-by-moment nudges of the Holy Spirit.

Think about Abraham again. Hebrews 11:8 says, “By faith Abraham, when was called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going.” At least I’m not the only one who doesn’t always know where they’re going. The will of God is not always easily discerned and takes much prayer, soul searching, and willingness to yield to whatever the Lord says. It is wrong to think you will always know where God is leading you, what He is up to, and what He is doing. Scripture is clear that we are to walk by faith and not by sight. 

In his book Younique, Will Mancini describes the three ages we are especially susceptible to crisis moments in discerning God’s will:

In our twenties, we are at our biological peak in almost every area. 

In our forties (unless you’re a professional athlete) we still have zeal and energy but much more experience and knowledge, so we’re probably at peak performance. 

In our sixties, energy begins to drain and our days begin to be numbered. You now have far more opportunities behind you than opportunities in front of you.   

Will says, “Fortunately, the Bible doesn’t view the trajectory of a person’s life as a ballistic arc to a pathetic crash. Rather, Psalm 92 promises, ‘The righteous thrive like a palm tree and grow like a cedar tree in Lebanon. Planted in the house of the Lord, they thrive in the courts of our God. They will still bear fruit in old age, healthy and green’. Picture life not as an arc or a bell curve but as a series of rising stairsteps.” Around the age of twenty you begin to wonder what you will do with your life and must decide to follow Jesus and His plan or pursue your own. Unfortunately, some get off track here.

Then you reach your forties and again you must decide to follow Jesus or chart your own course?  Will you passionately pursue God’s calling on your life or will you play it safe and pursue the comforts of this world as you become more financially secure?  

Mancini adds this: “Around age sixty, people face one more crisis, this one having to do with their remaining years. It’s about whether their productivity is based on activity or on generativity—that is, how they’re preparing the next generation to carry on their legacy. The brilliant truth is that those who overcome this crisis impact more just as they begin to work less. 

Are you willing to claim this promise? “They will still bear fruit in old age, healthy and green?”  Your impact in “retirement” or even in death can be even greater than your entire life added together. Mancini continues: “Peak performance may be long gone, but peak impact is one step away.”  

You see, at each crisis moment in your life, whether at twenty, forty, sixty or eighty, you have a decision to make: Will you remain faithful to the Lord and the leadership of the Holy Spirit?  Every single day you have the opportunity to decide whether to choose the trajectory of the world’s picture of aging or trust that God meant what He said.  

There are no easy answers, and discovering God’s will is not usually easy because we must pursue Him, seek Him, and keep knocking.  

(The content of this article is greatly influenced by Scripture, the Holy Spirit, and two great resources, Wild Goose Chase by Mark Batterson, and Younique by Will Mancini.)