“Alas, Sovereign LORD,” I said, “I do not know how to speak; I am too young.” – Jeremiah 1:6

Today’s Scripture Reading (February 9, 2014): Jeremiah 1

There is good news for the aging of Western Culture. Apparently we are growing up. It would seem that as the people within our culture get older, so does their view of the perfect age. In an online poll completed in 2013 (the survey was performed by Harris Interactive), people were asked what they believed was the perfect age. The results of the survey are below –

            For those aged 18-36 – Best Age = 38

            For those aged 37-48 – Best Age = 49

            For those aged 49-67 – Best Age = 55

            For those older than 68 – Best Age = 67

            Overall for Men – Best Age = 47

            Overall for Women – Best Age = 53

            Overall for everyone who took the survey – Best Age = 50

I am not sure, but something tells me that this is a change in our belief structure. We have worshipped at the altar of youth for a long time – pretending that we are younger than we really are and often suffering through depression as we get older, but maybe as our culture gets older, we are beginning to recognize the good things that come with maturity. But that attitude seems to be changing in our culture – because I think it used to be that we all wanted to be in our 20’s – and we tried to stay at that magical age of 29 for as long as we could (note – that age is totally missing from the results of the survey.)

But in the days of Jeremiah, the reverse was true. His culture worshipped at the altar of experience. The older the person was, the wiser that person was considered to be and people in that culture were more likely to listen to an older person than they would a younger one. So Jeremiah is speaking about a cultural belief.  We think that Jeremiah was about 20 years old, and his response to God is that at the age of 20, Jeremiah does not believe that he has the wisdom that is necessary to speak on behalf of God. And God’s answer to Jeremiah is that this is not about you, it is about me.

I find it interesting that Jeremiah’s excuse for not wanting to be God’s messenger, that he could not speak, was exactly the same excuse that Moses used in his argument with God at the moment that God was calling him to be his messenger. Moses was 80 years old when he used the excuse with God. So that bottom line is that it does not really matter how old you are – or how far away you might be away from the perfect age – either too young or too old. We need to forget about our preconceptions about age, both in us and in others. The only question that matters is this – what is God asking me to do? 

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Jeremiah 2

Note: Last week's message from VantagePoint Community Church (Edmonton) - "Real Meal" from the Series "The Upside Down Kingdom" is now available on the VantagePoint Website. You can find it here - http://www.vantagepointcc.org/the-upside-down-kingdom.html