It was probably 1997, and Holy Day services were being held in Derbyshire in the UK. Our guests that day were Colin and Margaret Adair. It would have been a time shortly after I had been appointed as office manager for the Global Church of God in the UK. In the announcements, the late and much missed Mr Adair, then the International Director for Global, said four words that I have thought about many times since. He said “The indefatigable Mr Gale” and then went on to make some further comments. Indefatigable is defined as “persisting tirelessly, tireless, untiring, never-tiring, unwearied, unwearying, unflagging.”
It was a time of quite intense activity. The office was still taking up lots of space in our home until we acquired premises the following year. Much catching up had to be done administratively. Receipts for tithes and offerings for the past year had to be issued and a template for doing so had to be devised. An office structure was planned and implemented and administration for the various video groups and churches had to be put in place. Budgets had to be set, advertising through an agency had to be negotiated and a Feast site found, approved and organised with an expected 300 to be in attendance. Booklet requests were frequent and many questions had to be answered. It was, in short, perhaps a bit more than a full time job for just one person, but I coped with all the energy that I had to make it a thoroughly efficient office. Perhaps that is why Mr Adair called me indefatigable.
Why do I mention this? I was 57 at the time and the figures are now reversed. At 75, some 18 years later, in no way could I be called “indefatigable”! In fact, were Mr Adair to make comments today, he would be well within his rights to say that I was “fatigable” – yes, there is such a word and it means subject to fatigue. I no longer have the energy of even just 18 years ago, and this is a prime example of how we change over the course of a lifetime.
Many, who were extremely fit and mobile not that long ago, may now have mobility problems that they would never have expected at a younger age. We do have to accept our limitations, whatever they may be, but with the wisdom that God can give us as we get older, this is necessary in order to adjust to, what seems to be ever changing physical parts of our life.
What lessons can we draw from what I have written above? There will be a time when all of God’s faithful people will actually become indefatigable. At the resurrection, we will be given spirit bodies and life that will never wear out – and for eternity. No more getting older with reduced capabilities and functionality. No more tiredness and fatigue; no more illness or disease and no more physical limitations of any sort whatsoever. “And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away” (Revelation 21:4).
It will, in short, be a time when we will all be able to say about each other in that wonderful spiritual realm that we are indefatigable in the service of God, and each other, and that it will be for all eternity!
