TOO!

Do you ever feel "too"? I certainly do.

I see the world as it is today--not the world I grew up in, and I feel "too" out of it. I feel like I don't fit as well anymore. (Actually I guess that is true, for as Peter said in 1 Peter 1:1, 2:11, believers in Jesus are "aliens and strangers" here.)

At the age I am now, I feel "too" young to retire, and yet "too" old to adjust to the changes necessary for what I need to do right now.

I feel "too" old to change, and yet feel "too" young to quit and give up and not continue to grow and mature and seek for more in terms of my life with Christ and spiritual growth. (See Philippians 3:12-14)

I look at the new life of the church in the world we live in today, and I feel "too" old to retool for ministry and service to a new age and new world and new needs, and yet feel "too" young to give up and throw in the towel and just glide along or slide along until retirement or death.

Someone said that we all "live our life as novices." Just when we get comfortable with the stage of life we are in, then another stage of life comes along that causes us to learn new things, face new issues, and so we begin again as amateurs at this new stage. It causes us to want to go back rather than living forward. Always living with the tensions of change. But we can't really go back, can we? Time marches on, whether we want it to or not. And I find that I would not be happy or content with where I once was either, because I HAVE changed and am not who I used to be.

I guess with all this introspection, Philippians is a good letter for me to read and study right now. In it the author, Paul, said that he "had learned to be content whatever the circumstances (Phil. 4:11 ff.). I need his word that God can supply all my needs (4:19). I need his admonition to "not worry, but to pray" (4:4-9) and realize that I can have the peace of God as I have the God of peace with me.

Are you "too"? Maybe you "too" need "too" much more of Philippians, like I do right now.

Lord, teach me to be content in "all" circumstances, especially when I feel the "toos"! Let me realize when I am caught in the middle of the "toos" that You are there with me, and I "too" can see that you will supply my needs, according to Your riches in glory in Christ Jesus." Teach me to be content with You, above all things, even the "toos."