Like all years as you get older, I suspect, this year has passed for me like the blink of an eye. It seems only yesterday I was sitting down to plan out my year's activities.

Now it is almost over, I start to ponder on what I have achieved this year—in truth, less than I had hoped, but much more than I had any right to expect. I love that Scripture that tells me that I can do all things through Christ, who strengthens me (Phil. 4:13).

In this somewhat contemplative mode, I started thinking about my life and what I have achieved, and at my age of 63, I suddenly realized that all my life I have been waiting for the "right time."

What do I mean by that? Simply that if you keep waiting for all the conditions to be 100 percent perfect, you will probably never step out on the water and dare to do great things.

When I was young, looking back, I always felt that I was "too young" to be taken seriously and do anything significant. Now in my 60's, I often wonder if age hasn't caught up with me, and now I am too old to be taken seriously and do something significant.

When, then, was the "right time"? The truth is—I never noticed when the "right time" came, if it ever did! What I have learned is that God gives you the day to seize and wring great things out of it.

Knowing the Right Time

The Bible says: "This is the DAY that the Lord has made" ... "give us this DAY our daily bread" ... "sufficient unto the DAY is the evil thereof." In other words, as Paul spells out in 2 Corinthians 6:2—"NOW is the acceptable time; NOW is the day of salvation."

Back in the days when I was young, by any objective standard, I achieved quite a lot in terms of worldly success:

• At age 20, I won the University of Queensland Journalism Prize.
• At age 22, I was Chief of Staff at "Channel 9 TV News" in Brisbane, Australia.
• At age 27, I was a media advisor to the Prime Minister of Australia.
• By the age of 40, I owned and ran one of the most successful public relations and lobbying businesses in Australia, advisor to some of the largest corporations in the nation.

And yet, I always felt inadequate, unprepared, and that I was not quite ready—that the "right time" had not yet come.

But—when did it come? If it did, I never really noticed it.

Having been born again in mid-life, and now having been a Christian for approaching a quarter of a century, I now realize only too clearly that if we keep waiting for the precise, exact, perfect and right time, we may miss the opportunity that God offers to us at any age.

As I move around different nations working with Christians in the marketplace, I hear only too often cries like: "I am too young—when I get older, I will really do something great." Or, much more sadly, "I am too old now—I missed the boat, and now it's all over for me."

The Bible, in fact, teaches a very clear lesson, that age is totally irrelevant to being called by God to do "mighty exploits." You might have lots of reasons why you haven't ever carried out your destiny and your dream—but please don't blame your age, whether you're too young or too old.

Age is no excuse. If you are blaming your age, just read the Bible and at least do God the courtesy of blaming something else.

God's Young Heroes

The Bible abounds with stories of young people who achieved tremendous, enormous feats for God:

• David, by all accounts, was between 16 and 20 when he defeated Goliath, changing the history of his nation in his time (1 Sam. 17)—and even younger when he was killing lions and bears.
  
  
• Joseph was only 17 when he was working for Potiphar the Egyptian, and had the integrity and courage to resist the wiles of his master's seductive wife (Gen. 39).
  
  
• The prophet/priest Samuel was only a young child when he served under Eli in the Temple , and heard God call him (1 Sam. 2 and 3).
  
  
• The prophet Jeremiah protested, "I am only a child" when God called him—and God admonished him: "Do not say, 'I am only a child'—you must go to everyone I send you ..." (Jer. 1).
  
  
• John the Baptist was filled with the Spirit "even from birth" (Luke 1).
  
  
• Joash, one of the good kings who "did what was right in the eyes of the Lord," came to the throne at the age of seven (2 Chr. 24).
  
  
• Josiah, who purged the southern kingdom of idolatry and restored the Temple and the Passover, became king at age eight (2 Chr. 34).
  
  
• Mary, the mother of Jesus, was in her early teens—possibly as young as 13—when she gave birth to the Savior of the world.
  
  
• Timothy, who loomed so large in the ministry of the Apostle Paul, whom Paul often referred to as "my son Timothy," was only 18 to 20 when he began working with the man who changed the known world in his time (1 Tim. 4).
  
  
• Gideon (Judg. 6) and the four Hebrew children—Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego (Dan. 1)—were only young men when God called them.
  
  
• And finally Jesus Himself—our Lord and Savior—was only 12 when He entered the Temple in Jerusalem and told His parents: "Why were you searching for Me? ... Didn't you know that I had to be about My Father's business" (Luke 2:49)?

So, don't ever try to use the excuse that you are too young to dodge the call of God on your life. God's unique call to you, your "big dream," is put in your heart even before you were born, and is there for the rest of your life waiting to be activated and lived out in full.

A Fine Example

Kong Hee, founder of Singapore's City Harvest Church, is a good example of a young man who totally embraced the call of God on his life. He first felt the call of God as a teenager, feeling a great sense of destiny even then in that early call.

He had to battle intimidation from many quarters, not the least because of his youth. He was only 22 years old when he brought a group of young friends around him in 1986 to form a small cell group that just a few years later eventually became City Harvest Church.

City Harvest Church has now grown to some 20,000 members—the largest and most influential church in South-East Asia, with mission outreaches into many surrounding regions. Kong Hee is now one of the world's most sought-after Christian speakers, traveling the length and breadth of the globe speaking to multiplied thousands, with his messages being beamed by television and Internet to hundreds of millions of people worldwide.

But first he had to overcome the temptation to use his age as an excuse—to say, like Jeremiah, "Oh, no, Lord God! Look, I don't know how to speak, since I am only a child" (Jer. 1:6). Kong Hee chose to trust and obey God, and the rest, as they say, is history.

Wayne Jackson, writing last year in the Christian Courier, puts it this way: "The Creator recognizes the value of youth to the divine cause. Youngsters have energy, they are daring, their hearts are filled with visions of the future; indeed, they can be a most valuable component in the service of Jehovah.

"The Bible is replete with examples of how God has used younger people in some of the most vital roles in the unfolding of His marvelous plan of redemption ... Youngsters, properly trained, are capable of courageous faith and considerable usefulness in heaven's cause ... Youth can accomplish magnificent things for the Master's cause."