I have been feeling old and sort of down in the dumps lately. Sometimes I have to kick-start myself to get out of a funk like this. Here are some things I can remind myself of.

I will never be 18 again but I also don’t do the dumb things I did when I was 18.

I will never have hair on my head again but I save probably $250 per year on haircuts and tips.

I will never be the “smart young kid” again but … oh, never mind, I never was that.

I will never weigh 125 pounds again but I could potentially bring joy to a lot of kids some day and play Santa Claus.

My reflexes will never be what they once were but calm, patience, and slowing down a bit help keep my blood pressure down.

I will never again have the majority of my life in front of me but I do have priorities now which are not so much of this world and that is a good thing.

I have less time remaining in my life for learning things but the wisdom that comes with age is priceless.

I have always prided myself in being someone who lives looking ahead, not looking at the past. As someone who learns from the past but doesn't re-live mistakes and regrets. Yet as I get older I find that it's easy for me to start lamenting the passage of time and the changes that occur with time. I don't like it when I get like that. My posts last week about being an old fogey stem from that.

I need to look to the future with hopeful anticiation, seeking God's direction and having certainty that His plan is in motion. I need to keep the past in the past and learn from it but, as God leads me, go forward full-speed into the future, confident that He has me where He wants me to be today, confident that He wants me to devote my all to the tasks at hand and not worry about the past and other things I cannot change.

This is what God says,
the God who builds a road right through the ocean,
who carves a path through pounding waves,

The God who summons horses and chariots and armies—
they lie down and then can't get up;
they're snuffed out like so many candles:

"Forget about what's happened;
don't keep going over old history.

Be alert, be present. I'm about to do something brand-new.
It's bursting out! Don't you see it?

There it is! I'm making a road through the desert,
rivers in the badlands.

Wild animals will say 'Thank you!'
—the coyotes and the buzzards—

Because I provided water in the desert,
rivers through the sun-baked earth,

Drinking water for the people I chose,
the people I made especially for myself,
a people custom-made to praise me.
(Isaiah 43:16-21 The Message)