Rev. Don Campbell
2 Corinthians 4:16
THOUGHT FOR TODAY, February 2, 2021
“MELLOW, DON’T SOUR”
Just as some youth give all youth a bad name, some old people mar the image of some of the finest people in the world, our senior citizens. We ought to mellow with age, but never sour. Perhaps out of envy or self-pity, as some grow older, they sour instead of mellow. They have contempt and scorn for youth, they despise life itself and make themselves and everyone else miserable.
Perhaps the cause is fear. As we see ourselves growing older, we don’t like what we see. Our fears cause anxiety, our anxiety causes tension, our tension produces physical symptoms, our physical symptoms produce more anxiety, and on we go. I would like to suggest five things that will help prevent us from souring as we grow older.
First, stay interested in life. During the 4th quarter of a championship basketball game, with the score tied at 98 all, basketball fans don’t lose interest simply because the game is three-fourths over. There are many pleasures in life that are free and can be enjoyed at any age. Don’t cheat yourself out of a moment of life’s excitement. Play the game, as they say, “from buzzer to buzzer.”
Second, stay interested in others. We all have aches, pains, and problems, but it is amazing how they often seem to vanish away—at least for a while—when we become interested in others. Be interested in people because they are people, not because they have an ear that we can fill with tales of woe from our own life.
Third, cultivate new things—new hobbies, new friends, new ideas. An old dog can be taught new tricks. Grandmothers and grandfathers are going back to college with the grandchildren. Others are learning to paint, bowl, swim, fish, use a computer, and a thousand other things. New friends can be cultivated, and with them come new challenges.
Fourth, don’t dwell on the negative. Every life has some mistakes, some failures, some regrets. But we cannot let them bring life to a screeching halt. I recently copied these words of wisdom from a business marquee: “Problems are guides, not stop signs.”
Fifth, look ahead, not back. To squeeze the greatest amount of happiness out of life in the declining years, we must let go of the past—both its good and its bad. It is gone, dead; it lives only in our memories. There is nothing wrong with reminiscing from time to time, but when we wrap our fingers around the past with a death-grip, we can’t grasp the present.
Link to Youtube – You Raise Me Up – Selah
