Have You Peaked?
November 7, 2018
After winning the Masters golf tournament in 2001, Tiger Woods held all four of golf’s major titles, the U.S. Open, British Open, PGA and the Masters at the same time. It was known as the “Tiger Slam.” In 1982, Michael Jackson released “Thriller”, which became the best-selling album of all time, and it’s not even close. In 1741, Handel composed “Messiah” in just 24 days. Michelangelo completed the painting of the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in 1512. What all of these people have in common is that their careers continued long after these signature moments. Probably none of them were thinking at the time that what they had just achieved was the peak of their athletic or creative genius.
When I was running marathons, my fastest time came when I was 32 years old. After that, my times were consistently (and drastically) slower. I didn’t know at 32 that I had already peaked. It was only after subsequent marathons that I realized that I had peaked a few years earlier. We all have a shelf-life for physical and creative ability. For physical ability, our prime may be in our 20’s to early 30’s. Our shelf-life for creative ability can be much longer, but often our creative peak happens younger in life. I’m big Elton John fan, but is it mean to say that I wish he would have stopped making new music in 1980?!
Once we have passed our physical peak, it’s hard if not impossible to get it back. We can work out and eat well and try to stay in our physical prime for as long as possible, but once it’s gone, it’s gone. For those of us well past our 20’s and 30’s, this may seem depressing. But I don’t think it is. Your physical peak is not your life’s peak. When I was 32 and in the best shape of my life, I wasn’t even saved yet! So even though the best days of my physical life had passed, I thank God that the best days of my life were still ahead.
As we age and we begin to have physical limitations, we still have the ability to grow spiritually. The issue is whether we still have the drive and desire to continue grow spiritually. 1 Peter 2:2 says, “Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation.” Notice the word “crave.” You must desire to grow spiritually to makes strides. We all have times in our lives when we feel spiritually stuck; as though it’s one step forward and two steps back, or that we have hit a plateau that we can’t seem to cross. The definition of a plateau is “a land area having a relatively level surface raised sharply aboveadjacent land on at least one side.” A plateau is flat land at higher elevation than adjacent land. So by definition, even if we are in a spiritual plateau, we are on higher ground than the ground below. We had to climb to reach that plateau, and there is still higher ground to climb, no matter how old we are.
While Paul was in prison waiting to be executed, he wrote to Timothy and told him to bring the parchments. He wanted his scrolls because even though he was in a dungeon, he had the desire and ability to grow spiritually. The Bible says, “Moses was one hundred and twenty years old when he died, his eye was not dim, nor his vigor abated.” Moses and Paul did not let age or physical limitations impede their spiritual growth, and neither should we. So here’s the question: Have you peaked? Have you allowed yourself to stop growing spiritually? I hope you haven’t. As long as God allows us to have breath in our lungs, we have opportunity to become more like Christ and to affect the world for God’s kingdom. I’m past my physical prime as are most of you reading this, but I believe that my spiritual prime is yet to come. We have to make some concessions to age physically. We are simply unable physically to do all of the things we used to do. But may we never surrender our minds and spirits to sloth and spiritual slackness while there is still life in our bodies!
