We read in Joshua 13:1, "Now Joshua was old, advanced in years. And the Lord said to him: "You are old, advanced in years, and there remains very much land yet to be possessed." Joshua never stopped until the very end. We read in 14:7, from Caleb, "I was forty years old when Moses the servant of the Lord sent me from Kadesh Barnea to spy out the land, and I brought back word to him as it was in my heart." He goes on in 14:10-12, "And now, behold, the Lord has kept me alive, as He said, these forty-five years,...; and now, here I am this day, eighty-five years old. As yet I am as strong this day as on the day that Moses sent me; just as my strength was then, so now is my strength for war,...Now therefore, give me this mountain of which the Lord spoke in that day; for you heard in that day how the Anakim were there, and that the cities were great and fortified. It may be that the Lord will be with me, and I shall be able to drive them out as the Lord said." We read in 15:13-15, that Caleb indeed prevail over the giants and their strongholds and didn't stop there but continued onto the next city of Debir. Caleb realized that God's retirement program is in heaven, not here on earth.

The world will tell you that you've worked hard your whole life and you deserve those years to pull back, kick your feet up, relax and fade away into the sunset. The world will tell you indirectly that since you are past your prime, it's time to step out of the way and enter the arena of becoming irrelevant. But nowhere is this part of God's plans. As we mature in our walk with God we are to keep moving forward, never backward. As Paul said in 2 Corinthians 3:18, "But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord." God's plan is for us to become stronger, richer, deeper, and better year after year and be used more for His glory until He chooses to take us home with Him in heaven. Paul also encourages us in Philippians 3:13-14, "Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus." As always the world is lying to all of us. What the world states and what God states are not the same. Our relevance ends on earth when we breath our last and not a moment sooner. Those of us in Christ know that it is really never about ourselves but about giving Him glory. The opportunities are endless, especially as our world continues to spiral out of control. May we all continue the calling we once received and looking forward, seek how we may be used no matter our age, our employment, etc.