Reflections on Turning 60

Someone said to me recently, “You know, it’s all downhill after you reach 60.” Of course, someone else said the exact same thing to me ten years ago when I turned 50. Still another person said to me, “You might start feeling like you’re ‘old.’ But let’s face it, you were old last year.” That sounds about right. To be sure, 60 is just a number. I probably won’t feel any different at the end of this month when I reach that milestone, but it does offer a significant occasion and opportunity for reflection.

Here are a few more things I’ve read about turning 60.

• ? You start boring complete strangers with your medical problems. I’m already guilty of that one!
• ? It’s not that 60-year-old people are lazy: by 60, they’re masters at efficiency. That sounds like me!
• ? It takes four people to light the candles on your cake before the first ones have gone out.
• ? Amusement park tickets cost more for your grandkids than you.
• ? Other people say you look great, and then add, “for your age.”
• ? At 60, you have the combined wisdom of 6 10-year-olds, the intelligence of 3 20-year-olds, the wit of 2 30 -year-olds, and the memory of 60 1-year-olds.

On the good side, I now get the senior discount at McDonalds! Think of all the money I’ll save! Seriously, I approach my 60th birthday with a great deal of thankfulness. I’m grateful to my family for their love, support and acceptance. I am truly blessed! I’m grateful to the members and friends of Grace Baptist for your patience, care and devotion to Christ these past ten years. It’s been an amazing journey and I pray it’s far from over. Above all, I’m grateful to God. God is serious about our being grateful…whatever our age or station in life. Ungratefulness is the root of idolatry and enmity with God (Rom. 1:21). “And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him” (Col. 3:17). Being thankful roots us in the reality of our condition. We often obscure that reality by thinking we deserve special treatment, notice, or commendation. We hold fast to our rights, and, if they aren’t honored, we think we have the right to complain. A lack of gratefulness is evident when we consider our accomplishments and fail to see the faces of our mentors, teachers, encouragers, and even our critics who helped us get where we are. If I’m not cultivating gratefulness I’ll most likely be cultivating attitudes like cynicism, belittling others, apathy, harshness, discouragement, and selfcenteredness.

Whatever my situation and my age, if I’ve received forgiveness through the death of Christ and have been adopted into God’s family, I am more blessed than I could possibly imagine or express.

With a 60-Year-Old Grateful Heart,

Pastor George Hawthorne