You are needed!

DAILY BIBLE READING:

Ezra 7:1–8:20 
1 Corinthians 4:1-21 
Psalm 30:1-12 
Proverbs 20:28-30

TODAY'S BIBLE VERSE(S):

Proverbs 20:29 (CSB) "The glory of young men is their strength, and the splendor of old men is gray hair."

REFLECTIONS ON TODAY'S BIBLE VERSE(S):

In our Verse for Today, we see that Solomon is revealing what is most celebrated in the young and the old. The young are celebrated for their strength and the old are celebrated for their gray hair.

Yet, while we can understand the value of strength, we might struggle to understand what value gray hair has. As I reflected on this verse, I read one commentary that said:

"In Hebrew culture the young and the old each had a particular excellence not possessed by the other. The young took pride in their physical strength, the older in their wisdom, revealed by their gray hair." (J. F. Walvoord & R. B. Zuck (Eds.), The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures.)

So, it's not so much the gray hair that is celebrate. It's what the gray hair symbolizes - experience and wisdom.

In our American church culture, we often separate people by age groups. This happens in Sunday School classes where people of similar ages spend time together getting into God's Word. Then, when we make our way to the worship center for the large group worship, folks tend to stay together - the older with the older and the younger with the younger.

But, the truth implied in our Verse for Today is that there is value in the old and in the young and we need both. We need folks with strength and energy to get things done and we need folks with experience and wisdom to inform which things are the right things to do.

In God's Kingdom, there is no one who is more valuable than anyone else. We all have qualities that we can bring to the table to help the church as a whole. We need everyone!

And this means YOU, my friend! If you are a child of God and are a member of a church, YOU are needed. Don't sit back and assume that you have nothing to offer. YOU are a very important part of what God is doing at your church.

So, pray about what part you can play in the grand scheme of what God is up to in the congregation you are part of. Meet with your pastor or someone else in leadership to discover how you can bless your church with what you have to offer.

Then, as the young and old contribute and work together, you just might see God do even bigger and better things in your church.