The Middle Age
By Ps Dev Menon
A couple of days ago I firmly entered what is known as ‘the middle age’. It’s the life-stage where you can no longer even remotely identify as a young adult, but realistically you are closer to that of a senior. I’m sure my fellow Gen-Xers can understand.
I realised at the last youth camp, that I was 30 years older than the participants, and am 20 years older than the premarital couples that I counsel. I have been in full-time ministry for almost two decades and my older children are well into their teens! It’s not that time flies (I have a very slow sense of time passing), but there’s this growing realisation that a LOT of time has passed, and I am older.
Since I run two AGs, I can see the difference life-stage makes. One is younger, with most in their 20s-30s, and the issues we deal with are things like career choices, identity crisis, relationship issues, and new-found faith. But the other one is from 30s to 50s, and now we are handling long-term illness, marital strife, caregiving burdens, faith and family breakdown. A much more sobering reality.
Inevitably, health and energy levels are starting to become a concern, thinking carefully how much I can realistically manage; whether to take on the next task. Yet there also seems to be this sense of liberating dependence: look at what God has done thus far. Surely, He will provide all the resource and help you to do the next thing – go for it!
I also sense an urgency to be clearer on my purpose. Not so much because I think there’s little time left (I am not THAT old). But more that I don’t want to waste time and energy. I foresee it would be so easy to end up adrift when my official responsibilities of work and parenting come to an end. I don’t want to spend my final season fruitless. So do I know who I am in Christ and why I am here? I must be clear. As the psalmist says:
O God, from my youth you have taught me, and I still proclaim your wondrous deeds. So even to old age and gray hairs, O God, do not forsake me, until I proclaim your might to another generation, your power to all those to come. (Psalm 71:17-18)
But lastly, there is this hint of adventure. The life lived with Christ is never boring, as my wife recently commented, each year seems to get more and more exciting. What new things will He show us, teach us, take us through? Wherever He leads I will follow.
