We took our travel trailer out for a short trip the other day, and one of the two 20-pound propane tanks ran out of gas. Disconnecting the empty and tossing it up into my truck, I headed to the filling station. Impatient as I am and always angling for efficiency, I began to ask myself, “Why don’t I exchange my small tanks for larger 40-pound ones, thus requiring fewer trips to refill?” What a genius idea! I estimated the cost differential for a trade-in, the necessary costs to adjust the brackets on the trailer, and then the savings in gas money for driving my truck to and from the filling station. Why hadn’t I thought of this before?

The filling station did not sell tanks, so for the time being, I would stick with the 20-pounder. Grabbing it out of the truck, I handed it to the attendant, who promptly filled it up and then gave it back. As I hefted the now-noticeably weightier tank back up into the truck, I needed both hands and some extra muscle. Not wanting the attendant to think I was a weakling, I suppressed my grunt. (Lest the reader dismiss me as a weakling, I should mention that an empty tank weighs in at seventeen pounds, but adding 20 pounds of propane brings it up to thirty-seven. That’s like carrying seven and a half five-pound bags of sugar! My younger self could have tossed that around like it was nothing, and now I could still do it without too much difficulty. (Though pride causes me to hesitate adding the ambiguous words “too much,” humbling honesty must prevail).

But now, I began to rethink my genius idea of upgrading to larger tanks. (The intelligent reader will see where this is going.) It became clear to me in that moment that efficiency might be a bit overrated and needed to be balanced with a reasonable accommodation for a changing capacity. The larger tank would come in at around seventy-five pounds! Staying with the 20-pound tanks now seemed to be the better part of wisdom, and I would resign myself to more frequent fill-ups. To younger readers who have ventured to read this far, you are probably laughing, for after all, what’s a bit extra weight to lift, eh? You will be forgiven for not reading any further.

As older believers, our capacity for serving may be affected by decreased energy levels, reduced mental acuity, and struggles with sleep, memory, hearing, and balance encroaching on our lifestyle. Even just standing in one place (like during some church services or talking with people before or after services) can be painful on the back, hips, and calf muscles. Put plainly, as we get older, our capacity for serving the Lord and others may not be as great as it once was. Rather than being on the front lines of ministry, we may find our capacity in supporting roles, like Moses on the mountain praying for the Joshuas as they battle in the valleys of life. We may slow down physically, mentally, and emotionally, but we can still serve in the less-demanding or behind-the-scenes roles.

Our tanks might be smaller and our capacity less, but when the Lord comes to take us home, and our life’s work for Him is over, will He find us serving at full capacity, whatever size our tank?