"Living the Expected!"

It has been an interesting week celebrating a new beginning and accepting a needful closure. First, the celebration. Our oldest granddaughter just officially became an adult earlier this month and has begun to take general study classes at the community college. I was blessed to take her to the first day of classes and then retrieve her at the end of her day. She shared her excitement and jitters on the way and was full of stories on the way back home. I enjoyed the one-on-one time with this smart and beautiful grandchild as she officially begins her new chapter as a college first-year student. I continue to be hopeful and optimistic about the future of these Gen Z grands!

Image: vecteezy.com

The closure mentioned earlier is about me. I have decided to retire as a workplace chaplain. For seven years now, I have enjoyed my weekly service in a local senior living facility, calling and connecting with truck drivers from a major food distribution company, and many other special assignments. Lately, I have been doing some thinking about how to better manage my time since becoming care pastor for my home church about a year ago. As my responsibilities have increased, I knew that I must make an adjustment and give up some of my other commitments to be more effective.

To use a football metaphor, I am in this time of my life that can be termed the “final quarter!” At seventy-four, some might say that I have one foot on a banana peel and the other in the “red zone!” 😊 As my dad continued to age into his nineties, he would frequently remind me of his resiliency with this exclamation, “I’m not washed up!” This expression, no doubt, came from his years of service in the Navy!

Many of my mentors have gone on to be with the Lord, but I still hear their voices through sermons and writings. Dr. John Claypool, an influential pastor-scholar and author, has been an impactful mentoring influence throughout my ministry. I have borrowed my title for today’s blog from the subtitle of his book, Stages: The Art of Living the Expected. This work was originally a sermon series to help and equip Claypool’s church in Fort Worth by understanding the common life-stages and challenges: childhood, adolescence, adulthood, and the senior years.

In the book, Claypool quotes Sam Keen, who spent his career as professor of religion-philosophy, freelance thinker, seminar leader, and frequent writer-interviewer for Psychology Today. Keen once described a wise person as one “who knows what time it is in his or her life.” I’m not going to admit that I am full of wisdom, but I do have enough intuition and self-understanding to know that I cannot juggle as many tasks as I used to do in my mid-adult years!

As I read the Bible, I see the youthful optimism and vigor of a teenaged David who runs toward battle with the giant of a man, Goliath. I hear David shouting out, “I come to you in the name of God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defiled. Today the Lord will conquer you… As Goliath moved closer to attack, David quickly ran out to meet him. Reaching into his shepherd’s bag and taking out a stone, he hurled it with his sling and hit the Philistine in the forehead. The stone sank in, and Goliath stumbled and fell face down on the ground.” (1 Samuel 17:45,48-49, NLT).

What a thrilling account, but no less so as the one describing Caleb when he requests his share of the new promised land. This brave octogenarian stands before the people and declares “Now, as you can see, the Lord has kept me alive and well as he promised for all these forty-five years since Moses made this promise… Today I am eighty-five years old. I am as strong now as I was when Moses sent me on that journey, and I can still travel and fight as well as I could then. So, give me the hill country that the Lord promised me.” (Joshua 14:10-12).

These two Bible heroes continue to inspire us because they could wisely discern “what time it is” in their lives! Are you leaning into each day of your life and “living the expected” next chapter with faith, vigor, and enthusiasm?

Let’s accept the gift of each day and trust and serve God as He walks with us through our days!

Mike Keppler, retired pastor,
active churchman and
doting grandparent.
Contact: drmjkeppler@gmail.com
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