By Life Or By Death

It's very liberating to realize that even in the hardships and frustrations of old age and approaching death, a believer can still bring honor to Christ.

I was reminded of that one Sunday evening toward the end of my sermon.

While I was preaching from John 17:1 on glorifying God, the Spirit prompted me to call attention to John 21:18-19 as an additional reference. In that passage, the resurrected Jesus is restoring Peter and challenging him to resume a ministry that now will be even more important. But the Lord makes a sobering prediction: "When you were younger you dressed yourself and went where you wanted, but when you are old you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go." Jesus is painting a word picture here of the type of death that Peter would eventually die. A death, by the way, that would end up bringing glory to God.

Let's be clear. This disciple did ultimately die a very unpleasant, painful death that perfectly fulfilled this verbally visual prophecy of Jesus. Tradition says that Peter died by crucifixion. To be exact, he was crucified upside down out of respect for his Lord. After 30 years of apostolic ministry, he died a martyr's death.

Probably few if any of us will be called on to end our earthly journey like that. But the Lord showed me something. I don't think it's stretching this gripping saying of Jesus if we take it as a metaphorical application for our own lives as God's children.

When we're young, we feed and dress ourselves. We're independent. We make our own decisions and get up and go when and where we like. If we live long enough, however, we get old and the probability is strong that we'll not think as clearly. We'll become more dependant on others, even for the very necessities of life. Pain will increase. We'll be restricted and limited. Finally death will show up. We have no idea what form our exit will take.

This word of Jesus assures the Christian, though, that somehow even in the midst of dementia, nursing homes, arthritis, or wheelchairs, we can still bring glory to Christ. Until we breathe our last, there is the potential for our experiences to honor Him. I don't know how. That's His business.

I just want to be sure that my life now is pleasing to Him. He'll take care of His plan for me when my mind is no longer sharp and my body can no longer do what it once did. I'm in mighty good company on this, since Paul expressed the same sentiment in Philippians 1:20.