Don Carson and John Piper turn 65 this year. One could forgive either of them for feeling they had pulled their weight and it was time to ease up. Neither of them seem to be minded to do so. And in their renewed determination to serve the body of Christ they have been goaded on by this email from one of their friends that I thought was worth sharing. There are a number of godly men today who are setting a similar example to youngsters like me in their mature years. (OK, so I know that to some young people, as I am now 40 I fall into this same older group, but really I still feel young!) I think of men like Jack Hayford who devotes serious amounts of time and energy to training pastors, and of Packer, Stott, Sproul, and, of course, Terry Virgo who I am sure will not simply relax as he grows older. As we age, may we not give up on serving God ourselves, and especially not on encouraging others in the way that Barnabas turned into an art form.
Perhaps this will prompt someone reading this to renewed faith that you can still be useful for Jesus as you grow older:
” [May I remind you of] Schlatter’s 11th hour productivity—nine critical commentaries, for example, published around or after his 80th birthday.
In fact, he published 13 major works beginning in 1926—four years past his 70th birthday.
This does not count a large number of shorter or more popular works. Nor his university lectures and seminars, which continued until [he was eighty], I believe.
Since neither of you smokes cigars at the rate he did (unless your Spurgeon sympathies are even more comprehensive than I am aware), you may well have even higher energy levels for even more years. May God grant it!”
Read more on John Piper’s blog.
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