I’m not sure what’s happening to me. As I’ve gotten older, I’ve become more sentimental. There are hymns I can’t get through without choking up. My lower lip starts to quiver if family members give me special gifts. My eyes fill with tears when I read what my grandchildren write to me: “I luv yoo grambpa.” When I see a puppy, I begin to weep. It’s become a contest among my offspring. Whose gift or card will get the waterworks going in Dad? My son-in-law is a pharmacist. He knows stuff. He’s witnessed this spectacle and has a theory. He told me he thought I had low testosterone. WHAT? Who looks another man in the eye and says he may have low testosterone?

I choose to see it differently. As each of us moves through life toward our own Day of the Lord, the manifestations of the Spirit of God in our lives are age appropriate. God said, “I will pour out my Spirit on every kind of people: Your sons will prophesy, also your daughters. Your old men will dream, your young men will see visions” (Joel 2:28 MSG). Little children will give you their love without holding back. Young men and women make big plans and are quick to tell what they think they know. And old men dream about the way they used to be and the things they used to do. And they shed tears.