A Pilgrim's Journal

	The days of our years [are] threescore years and ten;
	and if by reason of strength [they be] fourscore years,
	yet [is] their strength labor and sorrow;
	for it is soon cut off, and we fly away.
	   Psalm 90:10

Generally, 70 years, but if unusually strong, 80 years.

Interestingly, when Moses was 40 years old, he tried to lead the Israelites in his own strength.

	23 And when he was full forty years old, it came into his heart
	to visit his brethren the children of Israel.
   
	24 And seeing one [of them] suffer wrong, he defended [him], and
	avenged him that was oppressed, and smote the Egyptian:
   
	25 for he supposed his brethren would have understood how that
	God by his hand would deliver them; but they understood not.
   
	   Acts 7

This didn't please Pharaoh, and he tried to kill Moses. Moses fled to Midian, and lived out the next 40 years there.

That makes 80 years that Moses lived, by reason of strength. By all earthly measures, his life was over.

But God is just getting started when our life ends.

At 80, Moses met God at the burning bush, and spent the next 40 years leading the children of Israel out of Egypt, in God's strength.

Can you imagine what a bloody revolution it would have been, had Moses gained popular support for rebellion? But instead, the Israelites walked right out of Egypt, carrying riches, not having to lift a finger in battle.

Man's way? Protracted bloody rebellion. God's way? Rest, obedience, and victory.

Jesus also calls us to the same thing. He calls us to pick up our cross daily and follow Him. He tells us that the man who finds his life will lose it, but the man who loses his life for Jesus's sake will find it.

God starts where my life ends.