10/04/2021 – Too old and too young
It is a strange place to be in, when your too old for something and too young to continue at something. In these past days I have been praying to God (honestly complaining to God) about this strange place I find myself in. Allow me to explain, back in July 2021, after working 21 years as a software engineer for the same company, due to the companies downsizing, I was let go. It was not a shock to me, as the company fully prepared all its employees for the controlled downsizing schedule.
So, in my alone time with God, I would tell God, “God, it seems at age 57 I am too young to retire, but too old to chase after a new software engineering job, it seems to be a young man’s arena now.” Within my spirit I hear “be still and trust” but the voices around me say, “age 57 is too young, get back into it, get that next job.”
1 Samuel 17:28
When Eliab, David’s oldest brother, heard him speaking with the men, he burned with anger at him and asked, “Why have you come down here? And with whom did you leave those few sheep in the wilderness? I know how conceited you are and how wicked your heart is; you came down only to watch the battle.”
I’m sure David, at this point in his life, also found himself in that strange place of being too old and too young, scholars say David was about 13-19 years old at the time. He was too young to be consider a soldier and too old to be considered a boy. Additionally, David had to contend with the outside voices reminding him he was too young to be there watching the battle.
Perhaps you’re in a strange place too, a place where you are too old and too young, a place of transition, that strange space where you just stepped off the familiar and are stepping into the unknown. All the while you are hearing within your spirit that quiet assurance that God is in control.
Today meditate on this promise: Romans 8:28 “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are called according to his purpose.”