Friday Read: The Worship of Youth

Solomon wrote, "Remember your Creator in the days of your youth, before the evil days come and the years draw near of which you will say, 'I have no pleasure in them'" (Ecclesiastes 12:1). Notice what he didn't write: "Remember your youth in the days of your old age and desperately try to recapture it." Yet modern culture worships at the altar of eternal adolescence, spending billions on anti-aging products, cosmetic procedures, and lifestyle choices designed to deny the reality of time's passage.

Churches have bought into this youth obsession, restructuring worship around young people's preferences, hiring pastors based on their ability to relate to millennials, and measuring success by the number of twenty-somethings in attendance. Gray hair, which Scripture calls "a crown of glory" (Proverbs 16:31), is hidden with dye. Wrinkles, which represent decades of experience, are erased with botox. Age, which should bring wisdom, is treated as a disease to be cured rather than a gift to be celebrated.

The biblical model honors age rather than hiding it. Moses was eighty when God called him to lead Israel out of Egypt. Abraham was seventy-five when he received God's promise. Sarah conceived Isaac at ninety. Anna the prophetess was eighty-four when she recognized the infant Jesus as the Messiah (Luke 2:36-38). Scripture repeatedly commands respect for the elderly: "You shall stand up before the gray head and honor the face of an old man, and you shall fear your God: I am the Lord" (Leviticus 19:32).

Our youth-obsessed culture has lost the wisdom that comes from experience, the patience that emerges from suffering, and the perspective that develops through decades of watching God's faithfulness. We value innovation over insight, energy over endurance, enthusiasm over expertise. Churches dismiss older members as obstacles to progress rather than treasuring them as repositories of wisdom and examples of perseverance.

But aging is part of God's design, not a cosmic mistake. Paul wrote, "Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day" (2 Corinthians 4:16). The external decline that terrifies our culture should remind us that our true identity isn't tied to physical appearance, sexual attractiveness, or youthful energy. We're being prepared for eternal bodies that won't age, decay, or disappoint.

How do you respond to your own aging process? Do you embrace the wisdom that comes with experience, or do you desperately attempt to maintain the appearance of youth? Are you more concerned with looking young or growing wise? The fear of aging often reveals misplaced hope in temporal things rather than eternal realities.