God’s Not Done With You!

“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?” Genesis 18:13-14

People often write themselves off because of their age. They think that they are too old to be used by God to do anything significant. They believe the best years are behind them and they are supposed to spend the rest of their life just sitting back waiting to go to Heaven. People squander years and years of their lives. But that mindset does not line up with the Bible. God corrected Sarah for this way of thinking, reminding her “Is anything too hard for the Lord?” Many of the Bible’s greatest contributors were men and women who were not young. God often called people who were past mid-life to take on big things. 

There is a back story about Walt Disney that many may not know. Walt Disney had decided that he wanted to build a theme park called Disneyland. So in order to head this project up, he wanted to find a “get it done” person, somebody he knew could handle this mammoth project. He eventually found a guy named Admiral Joe Fowler who was 57 and retired at that time. This extraordinary leader was the man the President put in charge of reassembling the Navy after the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor and he did a fantastic job. So Walt Disney had decided that if this man could put the Navy back together after that crushing defeat, he could handle Disneyland. So he convinced Fowler to come out of retirement to work for him and they built Disneyland on the west coast. 

Then many years later Walt Disney said, “I want to take my dream to the east coast, to Orlando, Florida.” At the time Fowler was 77 years old and Walt Disney called him up and asked him to come lead with him again. But Fowler replied, “I’m an old man, I want to just take it easy.” But Walt Disney would not take no for an answer. After showing him huge pictures of what Disney World in Orlando was going to look like, it fired up the old guy so much that he said, “Alright, I’m coming out of retirement.”  

Then when Fowler was 87 years old the people from Disney approached him yet again to get help building Epcot Center. He told them he was too old but they flew down and showed him this great vision and mission. As they made their presentation the old flame lit up in Fowler’s eyes again and at 87 years old he went back to work because there was a mission and a purpose that was put before him. When they interviewed him they asked, “Why in the world at 87 would you take on such a huge project?” He said, “You don’t have to die until you want to.” 

In every season God wants to give each of us a purpose for living. So never say, “I’m too old.” God’s not done with you yet!

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