Threescore Years and Ten

“Who satisfieth thy mouth with good things; So that thy youth is renewed like the eagle's.” ~ Psa.‬ ‭103‬:‭5‬

Seventy. It’s really weird being the same age as old people! “Age is just a number”. So they say. I agree.

On Saturday past a wonderful group of dear friends from around the U.K. gathered to celebrate with my family and me at my "surprise" birthday bash, marvellously organised at a delightful hotel venue by my wife and oldest daughter.

There were many special moments, not least the incredible encouragement from those who spoke publicly and privately to me. But one moment will also stay with me a long time; it was when three pastors gathered around me to pray my wife and me out into a new season of service.

One was our (now retired) pastor and friend since the '90s. The other two are young men who pastor us now, in supporting churches in Lisburn and in Fintona.

One of them got the word that I am a “Caleb”. Again that name! It was not new to me. The LORD gave me that name first away back in the mid-80s. When Caleb stood before Joshua at eighty-five, he was not asking for a quiet corner. He said, "As yet I am as strong this day as I was in the day that Moses sent me… now therefore give me this mountain" (Joshua 14:11-12).

As a couple we are looking out on a now-begun “new season”, and, for the next trip, onto what the LORD has said is my mountain. The LORD called me to it 47 years ago this month, and I have waited until now to inherit it. And so, this month, we go to that mountain.

It is not a time for us to slow down. It does not stop for us at three score years and ten. We are re-tyred with new tyres on our car. And now we are commissioned and sent out again.

Give me this mountain … and others in our view … and beyond that horizon.