Gray Hair? Grow Strong, Bear Fruit Fearlessly
Daily Scripture
Psalm 71:17-19; 92:12-15
Psalm 71
17 You’ve taught me since my youth, God,
and I’m still proclaiming your wondrous deeds!
18 So, even in my old age with gray hair,
don’t abandon me, God!
Not until I tell generations about your mighty arm,
tell all who are yet to come about your strength,
19 and about your ultimate righteousness, God,
because you’ve done awesome things!
Who can compare to you, God?
Psalm 92
12 The righteous will spring up like a palm tree.
They will grow strong like a cedar of Lebanon.
13 Those who have been replanted in the LORD’s house
will spring up in the courtyards of our God.
14 They will bear fruit even when old and gray;
they will remain lush and fresh 15 in order to proclaim:
“The LORD is righteous.
He’s my rock.
There’s nothing unrighteous in him.”
Daily Reflection & Prayer
We live in a culture that idolizes youth, spends vast sums hiding signs of aging, and uses phrases like ‘out to pasture’ to describe the elderly. Psalm 71:18 showed that long before today’s hair coloring or anti-wrinkle creams, people feared that God would abandon them as they grew older. The psalmists offered a different vision: God doesn’t despise age but calls us to serve with willing hearts at every stage of life.
- Whether you’re 16 or 86, to what extent can you say with the psalmist, “You’ve taught me since my youth, God, and I’m still proclaiming your wondrous deeds!”? What people—from younger siblings or neighbors to grandchildren or great-grandchildren—can you influence by your example and words? Whatever your age, join the psalmist in resolving, ‘Lord, I will help others remember nothing but your righteous deeds.'”
- Scholar John Goldingay observed that Psalm 71 uses “always” three times—more than any other psalm. In the past: “my praise has always been of you.” In the present: I need you as “a shelter to which I can always come.” In the future: “I will hope always.” * This “always” spans a whole lifetime, from youth through old age. Have our culture’s messages about the “awfulness” of growing older led you to think less of yourself or others? At whatever age, how can you value people of any age as the psalmist’s God did?
Prayer
O God, I’m so used to hearing (and saying) things like ‘too old’ or ‘too green’ that it’s a joy to see that Scripture—and you—show no age bias. Free me from those biases so I can proclaim your deeds at every age. Amen.
GPS Insights
Denise Mersmann
Denise Mersmann, who serves as the Care Coordination Director for the church wide Care Central department at Church of the Resurrection, wrote today's Insights.
I love my birthday! I have always looked forward to each birthday, excited about what was ahead. Until I was approaching sixty. That one gave me some trouble. And the gray hairs didn’t help.
I’m not sure what I expected to happen between birthday number 59 and 60, but as the big six-zero came closer I started to question. What had I done in 59-plus years? What should I have done? And what did I still have time to do?
That feeling stuck with me for a while and I began to think about making a difference. Had I really done anything – other than raise two amazing people – that had impacted the world? Or even my neighborhood?
I began to think about all the things I would like to do. About the opportunities that had come up that I hadn’t been able to fully lean into because of work or life situations. It always seemed like there was something that kept me from going all in.
It’s not like I didn’t do anything: I tutored in one of our partner schools every week for two years, but that was hard to fit in with work. I coordinated Thanksgiving and Christmas meals at shelters. We made and distributed blessing bags to unhoused people on Christmas. I participated in Bless the School, and baked cookies for anything that came my way. I chaperoned youth music mission trips for years and went on a mission trip to Costa Rica. And I participated in a lot of other one-off serve opportunities. But it was always worked around in a way that I felt I couldn’t really go all in.
And then, somewhere along the way, I realized that this growing older thing would bring some advantages that I hadn’t previously considered.
In the not-too-distant future, I will be retiring. While I will miss the people I work with and the work I do, suddenly I will have an extra forty-plus hours a week to do whatever makes my heart happy.
Our good friend, Todd, retired, and the dude is committed full time to serving in so many ways. He drives blood around for the blood banks. He serves at a local food pantry. He is everywhere putting his servant hands and heart to work for something beyond himself. Todd has set an example for me to look forward to.
A weekly commitment to a local animal shelter? Puppies, prepare to get petted; kittens, snuggles are coming your way!
Bless the School? Heck yes, all week long!
Hang out with great nieces and nephews when they have school breaks? I am all in!
Mission trips? Passport ready!
Those post-retirement years are going to be amazing! But what about now? What can I do in the meantime? While I count down to retirement, I can be more intentional about finding opportunities where I can go all in with my life like it is right now.
I signed up with Lasagna Love to provide a hot meal once a month to people who really need one.
I bake cookies for events that might not have the budget to have them otherwise. This one is even better, because I love to bake and give cookies to people!
I take family or senior pictures for people who don’t have time or money to spend with a professional photographer.
It’s not much, but it’s something. Just enough to remind me that even now, well past 60, there are opportunities for me if I look for them.
I may not ever be Todd, but I am really looking forward to being the best me I can be. For now, I spend time exploring options and thinking about what I want to do.
By the time I retire, I know that God will still have things for me to do. I know that I will still be able to make a difference. And I know that the gray hair isn’t going to stop me.
© 2026 Resurrection: A United Methodist Church. All Rights Reserved.
Scripture quotations are taken from The Common English Bible ©2011. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
References
*John Goldingay, Psalms for Everyone, Part 1: Psalms 1–72. 2013, p. 221.
