The Hall of Fame baseball pitcher, Satchel Paige, once asked, “How old would you be if you didn’t know how old you was?” Born in 1906, Paige played America’s pastime until his fifty-ninth year of life. Satchel Paige refused to allow age to become an impediment to playing the game he loved.

     The Old Testament tells the story of a Jewish teenager who, like Paige, refused to allow her age to limit her impact on the world. Her name was Esther. Esther was thrust onto the world stage when the king of the Archaemenid Empire elevated her to the throne as his queen. Yet despite her youth, Esther carried out an ingenious plan that saved her people from genocide. Her cousin, Mordecai, famously said of her, “Who knows but that you have come to your royal position for such a time as this?” (Esther 4:14, NIV). Mordecai knew potential when he saw it.

 

     Mark Twain once wrote, “Age is an issue of mind over matter. If you don’t mind, it doesn’t matter. I agree. I know a seventy-five-year-old man who teaches a group of pre-teens. Neither the instructor nor the students care about their age differences. Affection and respect flow in both directions. I also pastored a church in which the testimony of a twelve-year-old girl moved a congregation to tears and led her father to commit his life to Jesus.

 

     All of which is to say that age truly is no excuse when God places a call on your life. One’s impact cannot be measured in years. So, the next time you wonder whether you are too old or not old enough to do something, just ask yourself how old you would be if you didn’t know how old you “was”?