[#Life] MidlifeSample

A Reason for the Season

Paul David Tripp, American pastor and author, said in one of his books that when we get older we move from being astronauts to archaeologists. What does that mean? When we are young we want to change the world. We want to explore new places, make things happen, discover the unknown, reach for the stars—sometimes literally. Then we get a little bit older and we move from wanting to be astronauts—“I want to do more, be more, go more, change the world”—to being archaeologists. It is not because we lose all our drive, but it just changes. We begin to go through the mound of our lives and start to pull things out. We love flipping through that old scrapbook or that old yearbook. We find ourselves turning our radio station to songs from our past.

We become archaeologists. Instead of wanting something new, we want to go back to old things. We look forward to the class reunion. We look forward to talking to old friends and reminiscing. We move from astronaut to archaeologist because it feels safe. It reminds us of easier times and quiets our thoughts of frustration. Yet our goal should be to give our frustrations to the Lord and ask Him what is next. Ask the Lord: “What am I supposed to learn in this season of life where I feel like there is nothing else I can do or change?”

We need to give it to the Lord; we need to realize that there is a reason for the season that we are in right now. There’s a reason for this season. God has put us in this place. But if we do not realize that, here is what the frustration will do: it will make us think that we can solve our frustration—if we could just get a new job, then that would solve all our frustration. If we can just get a new, younger spouse, that would solve all our frustration. If we could just get a little bit more money. If we can just get a bigger house, a new car, that will take care of everything—we just want to trade in the old and get something new.

The greatness of the Gospel is that Jesus Christ has traded the old for the new in us. The old self of sin to be traded for the new righteousness that we can have in Christ. So that frustration—God has subjected us to it. It is part of life. And there is a divine reason for going through this. Why? In the frustration, we find the hope that we would give it to Him, and we would walk in a stronger way.