A lot of my friends and I are going through some similar situations. Some of you have already been there and the rest of you
hopefully will get there. We are approaching that age where some changes are forthcoming and some decisions need to be made. We have to decide when we are going to take Social Security. Would it be best to take it early? Do I take full Social Security at 66 or do I wait until I am 70? When do I start Medicare? And actually when do I retire 66? 70? 75? Will I ever be able to retire? Where are the best senior discounts? When you think about it it is funny how much our conversations have moved beyond baseball, golf and other extraneous things to these matters of, “How is my life going to close?” “What is going to happen over the next few years?” “Will there be anything there for me at the end of life?”
The truth be told our lives are a never-ending cycle of reaping and sowing, of planting and harvesting. Every day you experience both. Some of us are approaching that time when we will be harvesting what we have reaped. The Apostle Paul said, “Do not be deceived. God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows.” (Galatians 6:7)
It is my prayer that each of us will have a great harvest. Today you will enjoy (or, in some cases, not enjoy) a harvest you have planted in past days or weeks or months or years. And today you are planting tomorrow’s harvest. Your actions today create the life you will experience tomorrow, and in the days to come.
“The one who sows to please the Spirit,” Paul says, “from the Spirit will reap eternal life.” (verse 8)
And then he encourages us: “Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.” (Galatians 6:9)
Sometimes it requires all of your emotional reserves just to continue one more day in your journey. Remember: this is a journey worth taking, and it is not without reward. At the proper time, you will reap the harvest that you are sowing today.
So keep sowing. Make the calls that aren’t always easy to make. Finish the task you’ve been putting off. Confront the problems you’ve avoided. Do what needs to be done. Keep sowing today, and wait for the harvest. I do not know what God has in store for the future but I do know this: As the book of Job says, He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end. Ecclesiastes 3:11
