Prayed Up not Washed Up

If you are familiar with the Gospel, you likely have heard of the incident where the Lord asks Peter three times, "Do you love me?"  But you may not have heard much if any about the very next thing Jesus said to him: "Very truly I tell you, when you were younger you dressed yourself and went where you wanted; but when you are old you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go" (Jn 21:18).

It is not one of the more exciting passages to read.  We much prefer the part where he reaffirms Peter's status as a leader, telling him to "feed my sheep" (vv. 15-17) than this part, where the end of his days was revealed to him.  Who wants to hear that later on, we will lose our autonomy and be led where we do not want to go?  Not me!  And I'm pretty sure not you either.

Jesus was prophecying the kind of death Peter would experience, being taken into captivity and led away to, what many scholars believe was crucifixion.  You and I are not likely to be led there, but with radical lunatic Islamicists like ISIS on the march today, it is not entirely out of the questtion.  Nonetheless, it is more likely, here in America, you will grow elderly and then be taken to a nursing home.  While you are there, you will be led by the hands to the cafeteria, led by the hand to your bath, led by the hand to your bed - the picture becomes clear though ashen or gray.

I work with people daily who are at that point of life, whether by the virtue of age alone or advanced by disease, they are no longer able to go and do what they want or by themselves.  Someone is taking them by the hand and leading them to places where they do no necessarily want to go.  And for them, like Peter it seems they have come to the end of their life.

However, as Yogi Berra once quipped, "It ain't over til its over."  Peter would not stop proclaiming Christ just because he was bound over for trial and even crucifixion.  As long as their was breath in him, he continued to serve the Lord, limited by chains and bars as it may be.  As he and John stood before the Sanhedrin Council, he boldly proclaimed, "You be the judges! As for us, we cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard" (Acts 4:19-20).

The point is that coming to end of our autonomous years of youth does not mean that we are washed up if we are prayed up.  We can go to the Father even when we cannot rise from our bed.  We can we can wield the Sword of the Spirit in prayer when we can no longer raise a fork to our mouths.  Regardless of how old or how sick or how disabled we become, as long as there is breath in our bodies there is power in our lives, power to serve God and minister to others.

Don't allow yourself to become washed up as a soldier of the Cross just because you become unable to ambulate to the battle ground, get prayed up sending "kneemail" to the Father, and attack the enemy from your position, praise God from your lift-chair, minister to the ones who provide care for you.  Whatever state you find yourself in, don't be washed up, pray up instead.  Jus' Say'n.