Value

I've been engaged in discussions with people who have felt dismissed as they've aged.  There's often a disconnect between the young and the old when it comes to doing life together in our culture.  Years ago, I had a very heated discussion with a doctor about my grandmother, who had been hospitalized with several health issues.  When I asked him about the plan for her, he responded that there was not much left to do except to ask hospice in  and make her comfortable in the last few weeks of her life.  I had no idea she was at the end of life; however, he explained that there was nothing to do because she was old.  I was mad and responded, "Someday you will be old and sick.  I wonder if you will want people to give up helping you because you're old."

But.  My response was nothing like my grandmother's reaction.  She was furious, dismissed hospice, and lived six more years.  The doctor would be in his eighties now.  I wonder how he sees himself now.  Just saying.

The thing is . . . it seems the youthful spirit is often dismissed . . . because  of an aging body.
One individual told me to look at top photographer web sites.  I did.  The sites do not showcase anyone with wrinkles.  It's eye opening and worth thinking about our own responsibility when it comes to how we perceive aging.

And, when you come down to it all, how we perceive aging reveals how we see the gift of life.  God has something more for us to experience each day of our life.  We have a daily opportunity to powerfully be used by God in the most simple ways wherever we're at in life.  

Consider. 
 I will pour out my Spirit on all people.
Your sons and daughters will prophesy,
Your old men will dream dreams,
Your young men will see visions.
Even on your servants, both men and women,
I will pour out my Spirit in those days (Joel 2:28-29). 
And.
So he said to me, “This is the word of the LORD to Zerubbabel: ‘Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit,’ says the LORD Almighty (Zechariah 4:6, NIV).  

I love how the book of Joel tell us the Spirit will be poured out.  It creates a picture of a powerful connection between heaven and earth for all,  changing who we are and what we do as servants of God.  And.  Zechariah 4 makes it clear that we are not to measure ourselves or others by what we do on our own.  What really matters comes from the presence of the Spirit.  

Look at the true gift of life.
Determine your own value as well as others to be from God.
Receive the Spirit pouring out in the day.
Live through the Spirit . . . dream and see beyond the moment. . . empowered to be and do more than any could imagine in the most simple ways.

Learning to Kickstart the day as God pours the Spirit out.
Kerrie

(written by Kerrie Carlisle Palmer © 2011 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED)