July 2025

One of the toughest questions I face when visiting those who are aged and struggling is, “Why am I still here?” They wonder what purpose they could still have for living. They wonder what purpose they still serve for their families. They wonder what they could possibly have to offer for the Kingdom. And those kinds of unanswerable questions can often lead people down a dark path of loneliness and depression.

And while I have no answer as to how God determines the timing of our lives, I do know that God has asked us to be a people of faith. And faith requires trust. And trust is no small thing that we extend to another. So, this is a very big ask on God’s part. 

Yet, God doesn’t ask us for blind faith. God asks us for faith based on the promises He has kept in the past. God asks us for faith based on the love He has extended to us. And He asks for faith based on the relationship we have built with Him. That is why it is crucial to have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. It helps us to prepare for these kinds of times.

God also asks us for faith based on the Words of Scripture. Our history with the Father. Within scripture, we find the wisdom we need in times just like these. When our faith is wobbly, incomplete, or hurting, God’s Word has the cure. 

I offer you these words of hope and encouragement from our Father’s Word about our usefulness in our decaying, dying bodies! They come from Paul’s second letter to the Corinthians. 

¹⁶ Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. ¹⁷ For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. ¹⁸ So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.

2 Corinthians 4:16-18

These words remind us that we are always useful to God even if we do not know what form that will take. We may be hanging around because someone will need us in the future. We may be hanging around because there is something in our heart not quite right with God. We simply do not know. But we do know that God has asked us to be faithful, and to trust. And we know that God works for the good in all things. So fix your eyes on the eternal when this world feels bleak. And let your faith comfort you with God’s love.