Calling has little if anything to do with age—yet we are often too quick to let age determine our calling. Of course people eventually should retire, whether from youth ministry, bus driving or banking. All I'm saying—what 140 middle-aged youth workers would tell you if they could—is that whatever your age, regardless of your age, follow your calling, whatever it is.

God's grace and calling can surround your aging process, as well as your profession—and here, too, it can produce contentment.

Aging can lead to contentment or discouragement. It is within the ability of everyone growing older also to grow increasingly content with who you are (that is, your strengths) and who you aren't (your limitations). In Front Porch Tales Philip Gulley writes, "When I was younger, I was consumed with the idea of being known. I aspired to a big pulpit in a big city making a big name for myself. What I've gotten instead is a small pulpit in a big city, making a lot of friends. Sometimes what we think we need isn't what we need at all.

Face it—sometimes we don't know what we need. "I've learned by now how to be quite content whatever my circumstances,'' said the apostle Paul, who when he wrote this to the Philippian Christians was alone, growing older in prison, his physical body showing the years' wear and tear. Yet the apostle retained a profound degree of contentment—of being OK with himself, with who he was and whose he was. "Whatever I have, wherever I am," he wrote, "I can make it through anything in the One who makes me who I am." Paul never forgot that he was connected to Jesus Christ, who would power him through his own aging.

See also...

• Part 2: The Costs & Benefits of Growing Old in Ministry

A frank look at the advantages and disadvantages of growing older as a youth worker—and options for those who want out.

• The Graying of the American Youth Worker