Sometimes it Only Takes One Word

“I don’t know why I always feel so old and tired. Oh, wait. That’s right. I am old and tired.”

It was a joke that never failed to get a laugh from groups I spoke to. Except I wasn’t really kidding. In my late 50’s I felt washed up, out of touch, and irrelevant. Add to that my complete inability to adapt to technology and I felt… obsolete.

It was hard to drum up enthusiasm about the future.

This came up one day as a friend led me in a prayer designed to hear God. I told him what I’d been thinking: I was too old, it was too late to do or be anything meaningful, and if there was a divine purpose for me, well, I’d missed it.

And then I asked the question that is at the heart of every two-way conversation with God. “Jesus, what do you think about that?”

A word came to mind. Evergreen. It floated across my mind’s eye like a light snowfall. Evergreen. And then I saw a majestic green tree, a fir, standing tall against a blue winter sky. I sensed God whisper, “You’re evergreen.”

He was using language specific to me. I am a lover of trees and cold climates. By showing me this image, I sensed he was saying “You’re fresh and vibrant. You never fade in any season. You’re nowhere near done yet.”

I breathed that in. I grinned at my friend. I knew something had changed.

There are times when our thinking needs to be recalibrated, realigned. There are times when we need to let God perform a divine reboot in our perceptions and belief systems.

And sometimes it only takes one word. 

~Debora Daniels Albrecht