“I was in my prime when God’s intimate friendship blessed my house.” (Job 29:4)
Lord Jesus, some of us lament being on the other side of our prime. Our bodies are stiffer, memory is slower, seeing is dimmer, and energy is lessened. Other of us are so obsessed with staying in our prime we invest a lot of time, money, and energy in looking 20 or more years younger than our birth certificate. Who doesn’t love hearing, “You look great. No way you’re that old.”
Taking care of our bodies is, indeed, a form of our stewardship. “Physical training is good,” as Paul wrote his young friend Timothy, “but training for godliness is much better, promising benefits in this life and in the life to come (1Tim.4:8). In this sense, being in our prime has more to do with knowing you. Jesus—enjoying intimate, heart-enflaming, life-shaping friendship with you—than it does with our blood work, wrinkle count, heart rate, muscle size, hairline, and lung capacity.
You are the only friend we have who loves us at all times—in every context, season, heartache, and failure. Thank you for befriending us in the Gospel. It’s overwhelming, settling, and centering to hear you say to us, “I no longer call you servants; I call you friends” (Jn.15:15). We are humbled. We struggle to believe it. We are eternally grateful.
You know each of our stories, Jesus. Some of us have never walked as closely with you as you intend. Some of us have drifted, fallen, or jumped into spiritual indifference, the barrenness of busyness, unbelief via suffering, or a prison of shame. For some of us, money, romance, and stuff have actually become enough—at least for now.
Jesus, whatever you must do in our lives—give us, re-gift us, renew us to the place of saying and meaning, “You are heaven to me, Jesus, and I consider everything as nothing compared to the wonder and excellency of knowing you” (Ps.73:25-26; Phil.3:8). So Very Amen.
