No doubt she’s a rarity . . . an eighty-six year old gymnast. The videos have been flying around over the last couple of days . . . floor mat exercise . . . parallel bars . . . kind of amazing. And, kind of admirable . . . there’s something about seeing someone in their “twilight years” with not only the capability to compete (not all are so blessed), but also with the drive to compete. Maybe that’s why I find Caleb such a compelling figure . . .

“. . . . And now, behold, the LORD has kept me alive, just as He said, these forty-five years since the time that the LORD spoke this word to Moses, while Israel walked in the wilderness. And now, behold, I am this day eighty-five years old. I am still as strong today as I was in the day that Moses sent me; my strength now is as my strength was then, for war and for going and coming. So now give me this hill country of which the LORD spoke on that day, for you heard on that day how the Anakim were there, with great fortified cities. It may be that the LORD will be with me, and I shall drive them out just as the LORD said.” . . . Therefore Hebron became the inheritance of Caleb the son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite to this day, because he wholly followed the LORD, the God of Israel.
(Joshua 14:10-12, 14 ESV)

You gotta love this guy. He’s done slavery in Egypt . . . he’s walked the wilderness for forty years (due to no fault of his own . . . he was ready to take the land back in the day . . . see Numbers 13:30) . . . you’d think that at eighty-five he’s looking for an easier path . . . time to hang out the “Gone Fishin’ ” sign . . . let someone else conquer the land and give him a call when it’s time to move in. But not Caleb. He is able . . . he is willing . . . and he is ready.

By God’s grace, Caleb at eighty-five was as able bodied as he was at forty . . . not everybody might be able to make the claim, but he could.

But just cause you can, doesn’t always mean you will. Who could blame the guy if he was thinking it was time to ease up . . . let someone else do the heavy lifting. After all, hadn’t he paid his dues? Didn’t he deserve to take a path of lesser resistance? Leave the sweating to others . . . he could be the aged, father figure to these young bucks. But Caleb had a fire in his belly. It was fueled by a desire for the glory of God to be manifest . . . and fed by a passion to lay hold of all that God had promised. If it was God’s will, Caleb was willing.

And Caleb was ready. If God said go, and he could still go, Caleb would go. He would go into the hill country . . . he would go against the Anakim, those “giants” that had so frightened the people some 40 years earlier . . . “and I shall drive them out just as the LORD said.”

Caleb’s “secret sauce”? Three times in this passage the Holy Spirit moves Joshua to record that Caleb “wholly followed the LORD” (14:8, 9, 14). Caleb was all in when it came to the things of God. He believed what God said was true . . . he believed God would do what God said He would do . . . and so, faithfully following became the overriding context for Caleb’s life. As long as he was able, he would be willing, and he would be ready to do as the LORD asked.

Not everyone is going to do gymnastics at eighty-six years of age . . . not everyone is going to take a mountain and defeat giants at eighty-five years of age . . . but everyone, by God’s grace, can bring whatever they have to the game for as long as they can. Mine isn’t to worry about what kind of shape I might be in 10 or 20 years from now, but to be faithful with the enabling God has provided for this day. Mine isn’t to be planning for my retirement but to be preparing for what’s next and be willing to follow where my God leads. Mine isn’t to dream of a day when I can take it easy and coast, but to be ready, as much as lies within me, to realize the potential of the kingdom and the promises of God.

Able, willing, and ready . . . by God’s grace . . . for God’s glory.