Leadership Wednesday 20 - 89-Years-Young

I went to my cousin’s wedding last weekend in Santa Cruz. It was a beautiful wedding, it was great to see my family and I was treated to my grandfather officiating the ceremony. Over the course of my life I’ve heard my grandfather preach sermons, teach Sunday school lessons and lead countless morning devotions as we prepared to eat pancakes on weekend trips to San Diego. Up until last weekend, though, I had never experienced my grandpa officiating a wedding.

I was talking to my grandpa before the wedding and I said something about how performing a wedding must be old hat by now, something he mastered long ago in his ministry career. I was floored when he told me that he was nervous because he had only done a handful of weddings in English over the course of his life; he had done numerous weddings in Spanish as a missionary, but not that many in English. My grandpa told me that he was also nervous because there were other pastors in the crowd like myself and my brother-in-law and my cousin’s husband. Can you imagine, my grandfather who has immeasurably shaped my life, was nervous, in part, because of me? I didn’t know what to say.

However, as I think about it now, even though my grandpa was nervous because other pastors, including myself, were going to be in the crowd, he is still the one teaching the lessons. My grandpa is 89-years-old, has more ministry experience than anyone I know, is the most faithful follower of Christ I have ever met, and yet was still nervous to officiate his grandson’s wedding. This weekend my grandpa showed me that you’re never too old to get a little better and you’ve never truly arrived to the point where you can’t go a little further. Even at 89-years-old, my grandpa understands that there’s always room to grow and that Christ is always worthy of the effort.

How do you continue to push yourself to grow, even when you think you’ve arrived?