"Embracing Your Second Calling" - Chapter 2

 Chapter 2 --- Getting Personal

“We feel shaken.  We feel scared.  We do not feel safe.  The center’s not holding and things are falling apart….. We inspire far less lust than we do respect.  We’re not quite prepared to settle for only respect.” – Judith Viorst, Necessary Losses

Ouch.  Really??  Are we REALLY here??  No more lust aimed our way??? Oh boy.   Let’s just say it.  The physical manifestations of aging suck.  They seriously suck.  The wrinkles, the gray hair, the aches & pains, reduced energy.....and those hot flashes. --Oh GEE…Why did God make us this way?  Hmmmmm…… Why DID God make us this way??   I mean, He had a choice.  He could’ve made us creatures that didn’t show “age” past a certain point, right?   Like my dog Django, who showed up at our door one day in the middle of a rainstorm.  Everyone says, “He’s SO cute!!  How old is he?” – I don’t know how old he is, he was a stray. He could be 2, he could be 8, he could be 12.  Can’t really tell by looking at him.  Wow!  Why didn’t God make US like that!?!?!  

Well, my friends, I’m here to tell you that God had his reasons for making us go through this aging process and you can fight it all you want, but it’s still gonna happen.  No cream or lotion, plastic surgery, medication, exercise or herbal product is going to bring us some fountain of youth.  So how do we deal with it all?

This chapter talks a lot about Naomi.  It reminds us how she had a “perfect” life with her wonderful husband, 2 adoring sons, and 2 beautiful daughter-in-laws, and then the bottom dropped out.  She pretty much lost everything.  Her husband dies.  Her two sons are killed.  She finds herself living in a foreign land with nothing to cling to.  She was too old to find another husband or use her good looks for influence.  God had waited until she was middle-aged, no longer valued for her sex appeal or childbearing capacity, to radically change her life.  So NOW what's she gonna do, huh?  --"This story begins with all the markings of a tragedy.  But through divine providence and Naomi’s obedience, the book of Ruth ends just four chapters later with Naomi not only feeling fulfilled but playing a pivotal role in the fulfillment of prophecy.  She goes from being in the pits to becoming one of the most important women in the Bible.  And she does it in ways that every woman can understand and emulate." -pg 18

“Time and trouble will tame an advanced young woman, but an advanced old woman is uncontrollable by any earthly force.” – Dorothy L. Sayers

We’ve got to STOP spending so much time and energy on fighting the aging process and start embracing what it all means.  Like I said before… God made us this way.  He created us to AGE.  Yet we fight against it.  Over and over.  And I think we are missing the whole point.

    “I believe that God wants to redeem all of the broken heels, chipped nails, dead-end jobs, broken marriages, less-than-perfect children, bad perms, fad diets, lost friendships, and PMS of the first halves of our lives.  He needed us to get those things out of the way.  He wants us to trust in something so much bigger than the best diet, the most wonderful sale, the biggest house on the block, the finest china, the top title, or the perfect husband.  He wants us to know that just as he can take a woman who feels bitter and empty to being full to overflowing, so, too, can he transform even our best lives into something so much more.”- pg 28

So go ahead... yell at God. Tell him how pissed you are because your feet don't look cute in your new strappy sandles because of those ugly varicose veins that have showed up.  Tell him how mad you are that none of the cool clothes in the "junior" dept are made to hide your backfat.  Let him know that you are NOT happy about having to watch every morsel that you put in your mouth because it seems you now gain weight over night if you indulge in more than lettuce.  Go ahead.  He can take it.  That's what Naomi did.  She let Him have a good piece of her mind... and then she let Him guide her into the part of her life where she could really make a difference. 

 My guess is God knew this whole "aging thing" was gonna tick us off.  He knew it would fire us up and make us re-evaluate things. Start focusing more on what's really important in this world.  "If all the Christian women aged forty and older got truly serious about seeking God and letting him use us in amazing ways, we could completely change our world."  I BELIEVE IT!!  --Would YOU wanna fight a herd of ticked-off 40 yr old women?? ... yeah, I didn't think so.  Powerful! 

“As long as you’re breathing, it’s never too late to do some good.” – Maya Angelou