Excerpt from the book "The Latter Glory"

Many of you have heard the song” It was a very good year.” The line that I resonate most with is “and now I think of my life as vintage wine from fine old kegs from the brim to the dregs it was a very good year.” The thing about wine is that when it gets to a certain age it’s rich, full and ready to be enjoyed. I find life to be the same way. Sometimes it takes a while but life at 50 can be like fine old wine from fine old kegs and ready to be enjoyed. As young children when we thought about the glory days, it was about getting older to do what grown folk do. In other words it was about what was to come. As we grow older the glory is in past things and we think about what used to be, in other words the good old days. I think we were better off as children. We had great expectations and couldn't wait until we could experience what it meant to be an adult. Life is much more exciting with great expectations. In the bible, the book of Haggai tells us about the people who were building the temple to replace the one built by Solomon. They had great memories of the former temple, which had been destroyed. They were looking back at the glory that was, instead of the glory that was to come. As the new temple was being built, many of the older folks were disappointed because they didn’t think it lived up to the glory of the former temple. In fact some of them wept. In other words they were missing the good old days but god tells them that the glory of the latter days will be greater than the glory of the former days. Their fixation on what used to be, what could have been, impeded their ability to see that the best was yet to come. What will the later glory bring? It will bring what we are willing to envision, embrace and bring to pass. I want to challenge us to take up the biblical proclamation that the glory of the latter days will be greater than the glory of the former days. You might say this is a 50 something book and while the age of 54 is my present context, this book is not just for those who are reaching 50 or surpassed it because all of us need to be aware of the seasons of our lives. To those folks who frequently talk about the good old days, god says the latter glory will be greater than the former glory. Who shall we believe?