Genesis (Chapter 18) tells the very ancient story of Abraham and Sarah:
The Lord appeared to Abraham near the great trees of Mamre, while he was sitting at the entrance to his tent in the heat of the day. Abraham looked up and saw three men standing nearby. When he saw them, he hurried from the entrance of his tent to meet them and bowed low to the ground.
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“Where is your wife Sarah?” they asked him.“There, in the tent,” he said.
Then he said, “I will surely return to you about this time next year, and Sarah your wife will have a son.”
Now Sarah was listening at the entrance to the tent, which was behind him. Abraham and Sarah were already old and well advanced in years, and Sarah was past the age of childbearing. So Sarah laughed to herself as she thought, “After I am worn out and my husband is old, will I now have this pleasure?”
Then the LORD said to Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh and say, ‘Will I really have a child, now that I am old?’ Is anything too hard for the LORD ? I will return to you at the appointed time next year and Sarah will have a son.”
Of course, Sarah does become pregnant and has a son, Isaac, who is the forefather of Judaism and Jesus Christ.
Of all the messages in this wonderful Bible story, the most inspirational is Sarah’s pregnancy. Sarah was old at the time. Not only was she past childbearing age, but she had been infertile even in her youth. The idea of getting pregnant made her laugh; it was utterly absurd. She was resigned to living out her life in a strange land, wandering around with her peculiar husband and serving him. But not only did she did get pregnant, but the child she bore would be the father of Israel, the founder of Judaism.
As people get older, they tend to look backwards more and more, often with regret. We see the future less as a time filled with possibilities and potential. Our future seems shorter and shorter compared to our past, our powers seem to diminish, and the possibility of great achievement seems less and less likely. But here, we have the Bible telling us the opposite tale.
And not just the Bible, but also every era of history, tells us that there is no reason, other than a self-imposed restriction, that people can’t reach their greatest achievement in old age — often in an entirely new field.
Michelangelo designed the dome of St. Peter’s at age 83, in a time where the average lifespan was under 40. Oliver Cromwell was a marginal gentleman farmer with little military training when, inspired by his Puritan faith, he raised a troupe of cavalry at age 43. Grandma Moses, an unschooled farmer’s wife, was in her mid-70’s when arthritis forced her to give up her hobby of embroidery — so she started painting! Harlan Sanders’ roadside restaurant was bypassed by I-75 when he was 65, so he started helping other people fry chicken.
I’ll stop there. The list of people who have started a new enterprise late in life, with great success, would fill a library of books. But the facts prove something beyond doubt: Age is not an impediment to great works, even in a totally new field. We should not delude ourselves that we are incapable of something, solely because we are older than we used to be. Everyone is older than they used to be!
There are limitations. You won’t win the Olympic marathon at age 60. But you can run a marathon — a number of people, who have never run a mile in their life, have started running late in life and become marathoners. The secret is this: They didn’t listen to all the reasons they couldn’t do it.
Contrary to popular mythology, you can learn a new language at any age. You can learn computer programming. You can reach a new level of achievement or success in a field in which you have practiced your entire life, or you can start working in a field completely unrelated to anything you have ever done. Those who tell you differently are wrong. It’s never too late.
Mason Barge
Daily Prayer
