People rust out before they wear out. The Colonel

He was 65 years old and had received his first social security check. The only problem was that the Colonel wasn't ready to retire. But what can you do when your 65 years old? Nobody wants to hire you. The Colonel pondered this dilemma and hit upon the perfect solution: He thought back to his younger years and remembered his mother's fried chicken. It was the best he had ever tasted, and he believed that others would think the same. Surely, some enterprising young fellow would see the potential and buy the secret of the recipe. Then he would have some money to do something with.

But, the Colonel was wrong.

While many agreed that this chicken made from his mother's special recipe was, in the Colonel's own words, "finger licking good", nobody wanted to buy a recipe for fried chicken. So the Colonel bought his own roadside restaurant and started selling his special Kentucky fried chicken made from his mother's secret recipe of 11 herbs and spices. The rest, as they say, is history.

Within a few years, the Colonel's Kentucky Fried Chicken stores were located all over the globe. The Colonel was for many years at or near the top of the list of the most recognized people in the world. And at the age of 92, stricken with Leukemia, the Colonel's old body finally wore out - without a speck of rust.

There's a lesson there, for those who care to learn it. God has placed us in this world with  bodies and minds that are capable of productive service far beyond the limits that most people care to take them. In fact there are many people who just cannot wait to retire - people who are sure that they are simply too old to work any more. And then there are people like Harlan Sanders - people who bristle at the thought of being put out to pasture just to eek out a few miserable years before being ravaged by old age. These are the people who know how to live the life that God called us to live!

It is true that most people rust out before they wear out, but for those who are willing to serve God for as many years as He is willing to give, there are great things to be accomplished. Old age does eventually catch up to us all, but there are incredible things awaiting those who refuse to rust.

For me to live is Christ and to die is gain. If I am to go on living in this body, this will mean fruitful labor for me. Philippians 1:21-22, NIV