II. FRUSTRATING STRUGGLES Ecclesiastes 12:2-8

A. Physical 12:2-5

1. The author now launches into a vivid picture of diminishing capacities as we age!

a. Poor eyesight

b. Weakness

c. Hearing problems

d. Sleep problems

e. Graying hair and decreasing muscle tone

f. Endurance decreasing

g. Greater effort at doing little things

2. This is the one positive thing about aging and spiritual life, while our physical capacities decrease with age our spiritual capacities can actually increase!

3. What we lose physically, we can gain spiritually!

4. This picture is not intended to discourage but to simply call attention to the importance of not neglecting God while young, when it is much easier to set a foundation of spiritual dynamics in our life.

a. As we age more of our attention gets diverted to burdens and needs, this is where that foundation really pays off, we have the strength to deal with them then!

b. Those who keep God in their youth never lose the inner strength, even when the outer strength is gone!

ILLUS: IN JUNE OF 1955 WINSTON CHURCHILL WAS NEARING HIS DEATH. HE WAS ASKED IF HE COULD GIVE ONE MORE PUBLIC SPEECH TO A BRITISH UNIVERSITY. HE AGREED EVEN THOUGH HE WAS TERRIBLY ILL. HE HAD TO BE HELPED TO THE PODIUM AND WHEN HE GOT THERE FOR SOME TIME HE JUST STOOD HANGING ON THE SIDES TO KEEP HIM­SELF UP, HIS HEAD BOWED DOWN FOR SOME TIME BEFORE HE RAISED IT TO SPEAK ... AS IT WAS, FOR THE LAST TIME IN PUBLIC. AFTER MUCH SILENCE HE FINALLY RAISED HIS HEAD AND UTTERED THESE WORDS, “NEVER GIVE UP, NEVER GIVE UP, NEVER GIVE UP!” AND THEN HE RETURNED TO HIS SEAT. THE AUDIENCE SAT SILENT FOR SOME TIME, AND THEN TOGETHER THEY SUDDENLY EXPLODED WITH APPLAUSE! THE FIGHTING PATTERN OF HIS SOUL HAD LONG BEEN ESTABLISHED IN HIS HEART FROM YOUTH AND EVEN THOUGH HIS BODY WAS WASTED HIS SPIRIT CONQUERED! – SOURCE UNKNOWN

5. You will need something to carry you through the years of decline, which will be the patterns you established in youth ... “remember your creator in the days of your youth!”