Luke Italiano,  You are not

You Are Not Your Glory Days

Your best days are done.

Think back. Maybe it was high school. You had so many friends. You excelled at what mattered most to you. People cared about what you did.

Now?

Sure, you might still have some friends, but you don’t see them nearly as often, huh? And they don’t seem to care as much. Everyone’s wrapped up in their own drama. And excelling? Heh. Yeah, you’ve left that far behind. Now you pretty much just try to get by.

For me, my junior and senior year of high school were amazing. I finally had friends with similar interests. We hung out all the time. I got the lead in the school musical, which mattered greatly to me. I assistant-directed at the junior high. I was regarded for my writing and my advice. I actually had a girlfriend!

And it’s all been downhill from there.

OK, sure, there are highlights. Like, I found a woman so much better for me than that first girlfriend. I have some great kids. I’m serving as a pastor, and that’s nifty.

But when I think about my best days… well, they’re over. It’s all downhill from here.

Really, what can I look forward to?

Let’s see here: Heart disease? Knee replacement surgery? My kids turning into teenagers and making all the same mistakes I did and probably finding more than a couple new ones? Arguments with my wife? Financial difficulties? Becoming obsolete?

Yeah. My best days are definitely done.

I am fading. I am declining to nothing. My sun is setting.

And that is the best thing that could ever happen to me.

If I am getting better and better, I think that I am enough. When everything goes well, I think I can create my own happiness.

In other words, in my glory days, I am likely to run happily toward hell.

Maybe you’ve been blessed that you don’t have that problem, but I know I did. My glory days were not all that glorious. It might have looked that way, but they weren’t. I depended on me to find joy, and any joy that begins in me will soon run out.

But my glory days are not behind me. They are not done.

They have not even arrived yet.

You see, when you start to decline, you realize: This world is broken. We started broken, and we only get worse from there. We need someone to restore us, to raise us up to a place we have never been.

And that’s what Jesus did.

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Jesus, who was in his glory days already in heaven, wanted us to join him. And to do that, he chose to make himself less. For us. Can you imagine that? Being in your glory days and choosing to lose all of it?

That’s what Jesus did. For you.

And then he chose to fall even farther: To die. On a cross. For you.

He made himself nothing to make you something.

He changed everything.

You see, your glory days are still coming. They are shining. Your body will be everything it was always meant to be. Your voice will always sing the note that brings the most glory to God. Your relationships will always work, free from the curse of sin. On the day that Jesus returns, your glory days will begin.

And now, in this declining time? Give thanks. Because you are not your old glory days. God used those to bless you, but something so much better is coming.

And now in your weakness, give thanks. Your weakness moves you to lean more and more on Jesus.

You are not your glory days.

Your glory days are still to come.

Luke Italiano is a pastor in Florence, KY. He has a beautiful bride and four children. He's a self-confessed geek. He also loves a story well-told.

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