The frantic frog fighting for his life, as is the heron!
It’s fall and Football season is here again. In most sports, there is a “fourth” quarter which determines the outcome of the game. Some of us are approaching, or in, that fourth quarter, in terms of our remaining productive years. Should we continue vocationally active into our seventies and eighties, we had roughly twenty-five to thirty years to make our personal mark on what is here, and on those who pick up our life-work and values.
As a young person, I remember visiting my grandparents and thinking they were years away from me because I was only in the first quarter. The fourth quarter was sooo far away that I could not even visualize what it must be like.
Yet, here it is…
My husband has always said, “We are going to just burn out serving, Jackie.” He will be sharing Christ on his death bed…I just know it! When the Beatles sang “when I’m sixty-four,” we could scarcely imagine such a thing (that was really old!), but now, it’s in sight or we have already passed it! So…what have we done in the first three quarters?? Did we make the world a better place or life better? The final count is out…
In spiritual terms, we will reap what we have sown. (Gal. 6: 7) We will each be held accountable for our deeds here on earth. (Rev. 22: 12) If there was ever a need for followers of Christ (especially, fourth quarter believers!) to persevere, be resolute in purpose, uncompromising for truth, persistent in faith, unyielding in hope, constant in love, and unstoppable in advancing the kingdom…it is NOW!
Just reaching the last quarter of life is a gift…a life-span “may come to seventy years, or eighty, if our strength endures.” (Psa.90: 10) Often, there are health and financial challenges. Or failure to see the divine purpose in aging. Many reach this milestone and sense the inevitable invisibility by the people and culture around them. They sit back and just resolve to wait out the remaining time…while sacrificing what could be the best years of their lives!
In reality, we are all living in the last quarter because we are not guaranteed even another day. We are told to “number our days that we may gain a heart of wisdom.” (Psa. 90: 13) Hence, the need to focus in and live as if every day might be our last.
Any regrets?
What legacy will be left?
Is there a plan to finish the course and its God- given purpose?
We are the “never give up” generation…
~Jackie Johnson - I am a former tribal missionary to the Kuna Indians on the Colombian border in Central America. Fluent in several languages, my husband and I currently pastor a Spanish-speaking church in Southern California. My passion is mentoring and equipping dedicated young women for life, marriage, motherhood, and beyond. I am the mother of two daughters and the grandmother of three Princesses and four young Knights.
