Day 1 of 7, a study on aging without shrinking.
I noticed something at the pharmacy counter a few months back. The clerk spoke slower to me than she had the year before, a little louder too, the way people do when they've quietly decided someone's become less capable of keeping up. I wasn't. I just have more gray in my beard than I used to. But I felt the shrinking anyway, the sense of being filed under a smaller category than the one I actually belong in.
"Do not cast me away when I am old; do not forsake me when my strength is gone."
Psalm 71:9
Whoever wrote this psalm was old enough to feel his strength actually leaving, not just imagine it might someday. He didn't pretend it wasn't happening. He prayed straight into it, asking God not to do what the world sometimes does when strength fades: set the person aside. That's a request worth praying honestly this week, instead of just enduring quietly the way I usually do.
Today's Question
Where have you felt "cast away" or set aside recently, and have you actually prayed about it?
A Short Prayer
Lord, my strength is changing and I feel it. Do not cast me away. Do not forsake me now, of all times. Amen.
God bless,
Paul