Getting Old+er

Getting Old+er

Daily I realise am getting older, my hair is going grey, I usually hear people panic at the thought or realisation of getting older so I decided to ponder and God revealed few things to me. I would share briefly hoping to strike a cord within you to do the right thing.
Today I would write with specific set of people in mind, the men or guys as we call them.

Getting older often comes with changes, some are physical while others are not. In fact the physical changes could be health related as more people discover they might have to contend with the need to exercise or live with medication all their lives. Its a harsh reality and if you are over 30 then you should start making lifestyle changes to forestall the need for panic either on health or financial grounds.

Change is a constant hence as we get older we notice changes in hair,body mass etc. We are expected to adjust to the new age; that's if we were prepared.

Anyway God has been dealing with me on getting older and change in general. Getting older comes with responsibilities hence if the physical man must survive old+er age, he must make changes and that's the same for the spiritual man. The irony is that we don't seem to make any positive change to show we understand the we are older.

An older man naturally have more responsibilities hence he should be more organised. An older man should be in control of his emotions hence he cannot be ruled by sentiments or bias. Its expected that our values would get better as we get older, we should make better decisions,in fact we should replace our fathers. The problem is that we seem not to know that we don't become the replacement just because we are older,you have a vital role to play in determining what kind of replacement you want to be. When we see a dysfunctional society, we are quick to blame our leaders but we forget that the leadership would remain so till we decide to step up and make changes and by this I mean become the next possible leader waiting in line. Its said that luck is when opportunity meets preparations, I read recently from the former minister of the federal capital territory of Nigeria; Mallam Nasir El Rufai , an article titled between terrorism and corruption ;where he made comments on the nature you young people we have lately and as harsh as it may sound,I cannot but agree with him. Below is an extract from the article

"There is little or no sense of community in that generation just as the concept of social justice is unknown to them. Generally, there are just two types of young people now. The smart ones that wish to take advantage of the system and the honest but bitter ones that feel short-changed by our generation and the system they think we created.With the exception of a minority of deeply thoughtful ones amongst them that can see through what is going on, most of our children have zero idealism. Many are uncouth, rude and abusive to everyone. They show no respect for their peers and seniors, and using the anonymity of social media, they vent their anger and frustrations on anyone that they believe is remotely responsible for their condition. They take no responsibility to be informed, educated or experienced.

Such youths see everything through ethnic, religious and regional lenses. They only care about sex, expensive cars, music and European soccer leagues. When I compare the idealism with which we viewed the world in our younger days with what I read on Twitter, Facebook and BlackBerry Messenger these days, I am worried about the future of our nation (or more precisely, the absence of it.)"

Getting older comes with responsibilities like I said earlier both physically and spiritually. The truth is that the world is out of options,we have just read from Nasir El Rufai and that sums up the dilemma of the society we live in, the world is seeking answers. The church ordinarily should be producing the needed solutions to all the mess we see around hence you would expect older men with a clearer sense of direction but what do you see? The worst cases of divorce and wife battery is in the church, uncontrolled emotions, premarital sex, indecision, late marriage, tribalism and outright lack of faith and seeming lack of direction seem to trail the Christian man; the question we need to ask ourselves is; how do we intent to be the perfect replacement to the mess we have in the society?

The story of Israel leaving Egypt is something so common to us all, we use it to explain what God is about to do without understanding the responsibilities that leaving Egypt places on Israel, leaving Egypt for the promise land has responsibilities, you need to dress for the journey, you need a paradigm shift in all areas of your life, you need to allow God to prune you and shed all the excess weight you carry inform of ideologies, many of which we got from parents and neighbourhoods we were raised. For some of us its the constant inability to make a decision about a relationship and steak to her, we are too quick to see errors and move on to the girl next door, we feel no lady is good enough hence testing the waters is a good way to find out who deserves us, what a dysfunctional ideology I must say. As a believer in Jesus Christ, we need to be washed by the word, we need to submit ourselves to be pruned, its amazing that we are still begged to attend DTI and prayer programs, we seem not to see the direct correlation between committing to God and attaining the needed height in life. Its a truth that not meaningful result can be achieved solely using our human effort, alienating God from the processes involved in fulfilling your dream is tantamount to failure. The emptiness we seek to fill with the next big SUV or the pretty girl next door is a function of a broken relationship or dysfunctional commitment with God. God in my view is the only constant in a sucess story. Seeking to achieve without him(God) is like building on sandy ground.

Guys let's tell ourselves the truth, the cars and cloths can get us the girls but it won't keep them, the ladies I see around lately seem to have stepped up, the know better now, the pray and work as well, we cannot dangle the flashy cars and the hope of a better life without the substance of character anymore and hope she'll give in. The stakes are higher and we need to be older and bigger men;driven not by lust or arrogance but by the revelation of God that produces integrity,character and excellence. Investing your time in God and allowing yourself to be mentored by decent older men would not only guarantee your sucess but would secure your place in history. So am getting old+er and my hair is showing grey but my consolation is in the journey, I have hope cos am daily seeking out how to be older better and a bigger man. I shed weight by exercising daily yet I gain weight in the spirit by tarrying in the place of prayer. Exposing yourself to Gods word would furnish you with all you need for the older you.

Getting older is a reason for the natural man to panic but for the man led by God, its just a great transition, our strength is renewed daily, Gods mercies are new every morning. We are endowed with wisdom as we get older so long as we stay connected.

Like I said, am getting old+er better and bigger. God is dealing with me on every side and I know that all things work together for good for them that love God and are called according to his promises. The is the security of an Old+er man.

God bless you.

Igonoh Godwin
23rd May 2012