“And He who sits on the throne said, ‘Behold, I am making all things new.’ And He said, ‘Write, for these words are faithful and true.'” (Revelation 21:5)

Yesterday I drove into Raleigh for lunch and conversation with one of my new friends. I love the flexibility that comes with working my own schedule, so it was no trouble at all to make my way to his work location and maximize the short lunch hour.

We ate on the sidewalk at the Cameron Village Bar and Grill, enjoying the perfect fall weather and some great heart-to-heart sharing.

Just before we left, Kevin asked me about something I’d said in our Sunday morning study group (The Daily Walk) a week ago. “You said that you didn’t truly find your passion until you were in your 50’s,” he said. “that struck several of us as both startling and inspirational.”

MORE ABOUT THAT: We didn’t have time to continue our conversation, but since then I’ve been thinking about how best to comment on what I had said.

First, most of the folk in the Sunday morning group are younger than me, so the idea of stumbling into passion around 50 is equal parts encouraging and unnerving!

Of course, “50” is only a number, and the beauty of this Life-Charged Life is that we’re always a work in progress, and we’re constantly standing on the cusp of fresh commitments that can engage our passion and challenge us as followers of the Living Way of Jesus.

I think this is really a conversation about Capacity (see chapter four of 10 Life-Charged Words). The key idea in that discussion goes like this:

Like a water-balloon (that will never stretch until it is first filled) we will never experience our true potential until, first, we allow the Holy Spirit to fill us. Then, rather than merely approaching 100% we find ourselves blowing right past it and into the realm of spiritual capacity that is – in a sense – limitless.

MY STORY: For me, moving from the, “I’m making the most of what I’ve got” frame of reference, to living into the promise of Revelation 21:5: “And He who sits on the throne said, ‘Behold, I am making all things new.'” came in response to a series of life events and a serious reassessment of my foundational values.

Essentially, everything that happened in my 20’s, 30’s, and 40’s had been preparing me, equipping me, for what God had in store for “Phase Two.” My life had always been important, productive, and meaningful, but it was/is also all about getting me ready for where my life was/is headed next.

TRANSFORMATIONAL: What changed was this. My faith moved from being formative to becoming transformational. When I entered my 50’s it was like the light turned on, and I realized that God wasn’t only interested in saving me, and in being with me, God is interested in recreating me!

I launched into what I call The Second Week of Creation (Reaching Toward Easter, 134-137).

We are Eighth-Day believers – followers of Jesus who are empowered by the living presence of the Holy Spirit… We are no longer spectators; we’re now participants in the new creation…. What we’re really doing is signing up to join Jesus in the re-creation business…

Not that anyone of us has to wait until we’re 50! And if you’re already a little older than that, it’s not too late! The opportunity, the privilege, is to welcome the transformational invasion of Jesus into the nitty-gritty of everyday life today, and then every day thereafter.

It’s a process, this new life in Christ, and it’s something we must recommit to and embrace every single time we wake up in the morning and get out of bed.

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.” (2 Corinthians 5:17)

– DEREK