One of the paradoxes of the Christian life is that growing older you grow younger. Sanctification takes time. But over that time, the years roll back, for holiness is assocaited with youth. You sang from Psalm 110, “A willing people in thy day of power shall come to thee. Thy youth arrayed in holiness like morning dew shall be.” Holiness is fresh and refreshing. Shocking. Clean. Spritely. Fierce. Holiness burns. It doesn’t obey or even seem to know the rules set by old unbeleving school marms. It cuts through callouses and unites old saints like they were childhood friends.

You are kneeling soon to confess your sin so that you might obtain this holiness. But to knock off all the barnacles on your boat, you have to see them. And the only way to see them is to see God first. Job was a righteous man. Job had less barnacles than the rest of us. But after God told Job to face Him like a man and after God peppered Him with a line of questioning, Job replied, “I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear: But now mine eye seeth thee. Wherefore I abhor myself and repent in dust and ashes” (Job 42:5-6). Job had never been happier. He had never been younger.