Is it just me or does everybody my age look older than me?

     From time to time as I scroll through my Face Book feeds I will click on the "People you may know" post that Face Book is kind enough to send me. I don't know how I am supposed to know a retired plumber from Mississippi or high school student from Utah or a hair dresser from anywhere but Face Book seems to think I do because they put them in the post. Every once and a while I will read a name that seems to stir some memories. As I ponder on the name I think I may have went to school with them. So I click on their profile. I look at the profile picture and think to myself, "I couldn't have went to school with them, they look much older than me." Sometimes I will scroll through their profile, check their "About" section and maybe look at a few pictures. That is when I usually get a big surprise, I did go to school with them. I will take a quick glance in the mirror and wonder how come I don't look as old as them.
   This happens not just online but when I am out and about too. I don't want to give out to many details because I don't want this person thinking I am calling them old. So I will be general with the details. A few months ago I was at an event and this grey haired older person come up to greet me. As we spoke I could tell they knew me but I was unsure of who they was. This person was wearing an uniform with a name tag and I tried to use that to roust my memory. After the event as I was driving away trying to remember if I went to school with this older person's kid or if they were a friend of my dad, it hit me. This person graduated two years after I did. How did they get so old looking?
     So I begin to wonder, how do I look so young compared to others my age. My first thought was it

had to be my bacon based diet. The grease from the bacon must make my skin look ten years or more younger. The fat in the bacon keeps me well preserved. So if that is the case I need to write a book about how bacon makes you look younger. Then I figured if that was true I would have already read it on Face Book. As I pondered this I came across a story that helped me understand my youthful looks.
     There was a woman who was going to a new dentist. While in the examination room she saw a diploma with the dentist's name on it, Miles Hemmingway. She quickly wondered if it was the same Miles she went to high school with and had a crush on her entire senior year. Soon the dentist entered into the room. He was a chubby bald man who walked with a slight limp. She chuckled to herself thinking there was no way this was the same Miles. He was the captain of the football team and had long flowing hair in high school. This man looked many years older than her. They begin to chat as he examined her teeth and she asked the dentist if he had always lived in the area. He commented he did and graduated from the local high school. The curious lady then asked what year. To her surprise it was the same year she graduated. With excitement she said, "You were in my class!" The dentist looking in her mouth said, "Oh yea, what did you teach?"
     It became clear to me after reading this story that the reason I look so much younger than people my age is because I am the judge. Of course my judgement is not fair. I have been looking at myself in the mirror for 44 years so I haven't noticed how the aging process had changed my appearance. To me I look the same as the day I graduated, except less hair and there is more of me now. So me comparing myself to others isn't going to work. I need to find a more unbiased judge who can and will judge fairly.
     That is true not only when I judge if I look my age or not but when I judge how Godly of a person I am. I can easily find someone who sins "more" than me or that does "worse" sins than me. But that is not who I am to measure myself against. If I am fair I can also find people who sin less than me and that does "less bad" sins than me also. I shouldn't be trying to be better than you or patterning my life after the person that I think is better than me. The scriptures put it clearly when it comes to who we should pattern our life after.
                                    And by this we know that we have come to know him, if we keep his commandments. 4 Whoever says “I know him” but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him, 5 but whoever keeps his word, in him truly the love of God is perfected. By this we may know that we are in him: 6 whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked.
1 John 2:3-6 (ESV)
     As a Christian I am to follow the example of Christ. I am to strive to be more like Him. We are not in a game to see who wins by doing more good or less bad. We are on a path that we travel together. I should be trying to find the straight and narrow path that leads to Chrsit and you should too. We

should be helping each other along the way not trying to push each other off the path. We are not playing "king of the hill". We are trying to live a life that points others to Christ. How can I do that if I am busy judging other people? I am to call sin what it is, sin but it has to include my sins also. If it includes your sin it is not because I am judging you but because it is what it is, sin. Intead of being offended by someone calling my sin, sin I should be convicted and you should too. That is how we become more Christ like. By recognizing that our sin is sin, repenting and turning away from it. So instead of judging one another, let's help each other find that straight and narrow path that leads to Jesus. After all, soon we will all have our new and improved bodies and nobody will ever look their age again.


Parting Thought: How could the "good old days" my grandparents spoke of be so good without indoor plumbing?