Relevant. Merriam-Webster defines that words as “having significant and demonstrable bearing on the matter at hand.” Irrelevant means, “not relevant.”
As I age, I have grown to hate that word “irrelevant.” As I look at our culture that places so much value on youth and has dismissed the “elderly” as irrelevant, it annoys my soul. Instead of seeing wisdom in wrinkled faces, we see insignificance. Instead of learning from the life experiences of those with years in the rearview mirror, we reject that historical knowledge outright. In part because we have done that, our culture is not just fraying at the edges, it is disintegrating from its very core.
Take heart, beloved, because in God’s Kingdom things are done differently. God has created us for good works, and He determined not just what those good works are, He prepared them ahead of time for us to realize.
“For we are His creation, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared ahead of time so that we should walk in them.” [Ephesians 2:10 HCSB]
The good works we are assigned are ours to accomplish. We have good works as a corporate body of believers, but we also have good works as individuals. We need not fear that God will ever see us as “irrelevant” as we age, or because of struggles and trials we might have had in the past. We are not going to be set aside for a younger or more successful version!
God loves us and knows our hearts. He knows that we need to be “relevant” until we meet Him face-to-face and give that accounting of our lives. In those green pastures beside those still waters, He strengthens us, restores us, renews us so that we can venture out into our world and do what He created us to do.
