Sixth Decade

Celebrating the Dedication of our newest granddaughter, Lola Leigh

“Author and professor Bobby Clinton argues that both Scripture and church history indicate that pretty much everything God speaks to us until around our sixties is preparation. If there’s fruit, that’s a bonus, but the aim is preparation and training in discernment—to learn God’s voice and live with such radical trust that your life becomes an open channel between heaven and earth.” (From Tyler Staton’s The Familiar Stranger)

I read this quote out loud to my husband, slamming the book shut for emphasis. Like a mic drop after saying the one thing that needs to be said. 

Have you ever heard anyone say anything like this before? Isn’t this the exact thing we’ve been wishful thinking? 

“We feel like we’re getting ready for something…” 

We’ve said this so many times lately. We don’t feel finished. We feel like we’re being prepared. Like we’re getting ready. 

Our nest is empty. We’ve had a lavish season of lakeside refreshment. Our souls feel rested. We’ve had enough quiet to hear from the Spirit. And His hints seem to be getting more frequent. Maybe they’re forming a picture. A possible future. We pay attention. 

We decide to meet with a financial planner. Not just about retirement, but about a new season of work and ministry. What might be possible, God willing? 

God willing. Because we’re honestly not interested in making our own plans, but discerning His. 

Where is GOD leading? 

We have a hunch. It starts with a low-key vision, around this time last year. No bright lights or angel appearance. Just a scenario we’d never have pictured without that bit of Spirit prompting. Months pass and out of the blue the very thing we prayer-imagined develops into a tangible option. And still we wait. We wonder. 

In the meantime we keep on listening. Like the quote in that book, we try our best “to learn God’s voice and live with such radical trust…” If there’s one thing I’ve learned by my sixth decade it’s healthy distrust of human effort. Especially my own. 

Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight (Proverbs 3:5-6). 

How many grandmas have I known who’ve made this verse their one and only goal? And no wonder. 

Walking with Jesus for a lifetime does build trust. It gives you stories to look back on and remember. You realize something you’ve always known IS true, you now know AS true to the core of your being. “God, I trust you”—as truer than true. 

Kyle can look back and remember a long season of work anxiety, sleepless nights. The only place he found peace was in the pages of Scripture, so he meditated desperate, day and night. Until one day he realized the battle was finished. God had won. 

I can tell you about a long and beautiful season of crushing transformation. The Father gently breaking in order to rebuild. Replacing self-effort and striving with Holy Spirit formation and thriving. Jesus doing for me what I could never do myself. Again and again. 

Together we’ve seen the Father as faithful in the lives of five sons. Story after story after story. (Ten years of stories, here on this blog.) And no two alike. Each of our sons a testimony of God’s tender, creative, omniscient care. Stories still being written. Still unfolding. 

Just like ours. 

Kyle’s and mine. Our story still unfolding here in our sixth decade, and one thing we know for certain is God as faithful and we trust Him to lead us. From now to forever. One day at a time for a lifetime.

God, we trust you. Today.