Your Wisdom is Showing
by Robin Dance
One early morning, not so long ago, I remember looking in the mirror and not quite recognizing the woman blinking back at me. It seemed a lot had changed from the reflection I was expecting, and I hadn’t grown accustomed to this older version of myself. I wanted to chalk it up to an early morning, sleepy-eyed stupor, but I knew better. I had celebrated enough birthdays to know better.
You might not yet have turned 30 or maybe you’re a few years shy of middle age, but there’s a good chance one day you’ll wake up and feel ancient, too. You’ll wonder, “When in the world did that happen…?” as you examine the merciless brushstrokes of age. Those tell-tale signs – gray or thinning hair, crow’s feet, and smile lines, expanding waist and skin changes – seem to appear overnight but they’ve been creeping in for years.
The struggle with growing older isn’t just about appearance though, is it? There is an emotional and psychological impact too. You question if your age is the reason you didn’t get that interview or promotion. As an elder member of the Sandwich Generation, you know that when your adult children have problems (financial, job, marriage, health…), it makes parenting teenagers look like a piece of cake. At the other end of the spectrum, you find out caring for your own parents is unchartered territory. It can be frustrating, heart-wrenching, or flying blind, sometimes all three at once. You struggle with identity, value, relevancy, or purpose. But then, as a follower of Christ, you struggle with struggling because by now, shouldn’t you know better?
Even when you know the right answers in your head, your heart can’t quite believe the truth you’ve been taught. You hear the Gospel preached every Sunday, but by Monday morning you feel old and irrelevant, like your best days have passed you by.
It’s helpful to know you aren’t alone and that what you’re feeling and experiencing is normal. Aging is complicated and stirs up a lot of complex emotions. I’m convinced one of the most beautiful aspects of our faith is that we get to remind each other of important truths we know but may have temporarily forgotten.
Today I want you to remember this: Ours is a loving God who is always and only for us. And because of who God is and what He wants for our lives, we can trust that He can use whatever we’re wrestling with for our good, His glory, and for the advancement of the gospel.
Even aging.
I began to see and believe this through my hairdresser-turned-friend of nearly twenty years. My long-awaited appointment couldn't have been more needed; my hair color had faded, my roots had grown out, and patches of white, silver, and gray were threatening a takeover. Lily greeted me as she often has, “Darling, your wisdom is showing.”
I internalized her words -- Your wisdom is showing -- as the Holy Spirit gently began His work. I questioned if this statement could actually be said of me. How was I stewarding my experiences, life lessons, and all God has shown me over half a century? Could it be, by God’s design, that wisdom naturally accompanies age? A pastor of mine once defined wisdom as seeing life through God’s perspective, and I think most of us learn to do this over time and with practice. I wonder if any part of this is what the psalmist was thinking when he penned Psalm 90:12 —
Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.
Haven’t you found that the older you get, the better you understand the brevity of life and the value of today? Tomorrow isn't guaranteed, so how can we make the most of what we have right now? Understanding this ushers in the gift of gaining a heart of wisdom.
As I considered Lily’s words in light of my own issues with aging, I invited God into my vanities and asked Him to fill my insecurities with His assurances. I asked Him to heal my broken places with His love, to remind me of who He is and who He says I am in light of the gospel -- to remind me that I'm not made for this world, but while I'm here, I get to share the beauty of a forever kingdom. It doesn't stop all the things associated with aging, but it helps me not to dwell on what doesn't matter so much, anyway, and to focus on what does. And honestly, isn't this truth we need to contemplate regardless of our age?
When “my wisdom is showing,” it has nothing to do with me and everything to do with God and what He has done (and is doing) in my life. God used Lily to challenge me not just to embrace my age as a gift but to steward it in a way that serves others and points them to Jesus.
Growing older has revealed my vulnerabilities, inadequacies, and desperate need for God. Aging is the price we pay for life, and the cost is worth it. It means we have another day to share the good news of the gospel with someone who doesn’t yet know Jesus.
So, if you look in the mirror and notice the imprint of time, it’s a good thing. Your wisdom is starting to show. Take what you’ve learned and experienced and sow it back into the Kingdom of God. Your family, Missional Community, friends, and neighbors might just need to hear exactly what you’ve learned from all the years you’ve been given.