how to be younger and more alive

Posted on March 27, 2013

Here’s the “Wednesday Video-post.” Same message, different slant: “Holy Week, New Life Every Day!“

Today is Wednesday of “Holy Week.”

However, and despite:

• being deliberate about my observance of Lent,
• reading daily devotions from The Upper Room,
• receiving Lenten Treasures every evening from our church,
• reading entire books of the New Testament each week for my Everyday Christianity class,
• and re-reading the text of my own book, Reaching Toward Easter…

… I won’t be in the place I intend to be – spiritually – until I take a deliberate few moments with God and specifically invite Jesus to be my companion and guide for THIS day.

That’s because this following Jesus thing is a decision that must be made, and renewed, at the very least daily and, more practically, at ever-increasing intervals as each new day unfolds.

birthday pic with (much younger) Rebekah

AGING (OR NOT): The idea fits quite well with our discussion about age, and about (yesterday’s “birthday-post”) being the youngest 57-year-old imaginable. I think what I’m really talking about is having a young spirit. I am born anew… born again… born from above… each and every day that I invite newness into my life.

I often tell Rebekah that she’s obviously a lot younger than many people who are in their (chronological) thirties. And I mean that. It’s not flattery or rhetoric. She has a young spirit.

Here’s the thing: a young spirit is not an accident of nature, it’s a byproduct of renewal.

Here’s the thing: a young spirit is not an accident of nature, it’s a byproduct of renewal.

“Renewal” – To be made new again. Not dressed up; not rehabbed; not a cosmetic makeover; not some kind of a spiritual face-lift. But made new again. A new creation.

FORWARD: Owning a young spirit is also not about going backwards. I’m not talking about winding the clock back or living in the past. This is Jesus we’re talking about, not Peter Pan. Newness is always forward moving. When scripture talks about a “new creation” it’s not suggesting the old creation, dusted off and restored to mint condition.

And so – lest I stray any further away from the course I set in talking about Wednesday of Holy Week – my opportunity on this day is to be a young spirit, alive and vibrant, a new creation. Lent may be a journey, but it’s also a decision.

In the spirit of newness – DEREK

Click here for video-post

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