The most beautiful thing about getting old is the privilege of finding more meaning in life; meaning that the young will most likely miss. But of course a person may also find old age bereft of meaning. That happens when life had been lived without looking for meaning in the first place.
Good works with spiritual value is not about doing good things because we feel good about it; or for the political cards you can gain in doing so. It is about doing good things in the name of God who loves you, and you simply do loving things because God first have loved you. And neither because it is your job to do so. But because for doing so God will be glorified the more.
A difference between God and Evil is deal-making. Evil makes deals almost all the time. When it does not make deals, it deceives. God neither makes deals nor deceives. He gives love unconditionally ("I will give you good things because you're my child and I love you, not because we have a deal.") and is the Truth himself. He wishes we love Him too unconditionally, and stay with Him under the light of Truth no matter the cost.
Sometimes when a relationship is in extreme trial, all you can hold on are the memories of those happy moments in time and the faith of the constant love of the other. This is easier in a relationship between persons where presence is mediated with the senses. It is much more difficult in a person's relationship with God; all the soul has to do is to follow that darkness with only the faith of God's love providing a glimmering light.
Salvation is not about how fast you learn in school, or how many bible verses you can recite in rote, or how much money you stashed in your bank accounts. It is about how far you stay in the Lord's side, in the best and worst periods of your life, without betraying him in order to satisfy your passions and ambitions.
When the guardians of truth learned to look with jaundiced eyes, and no longer able to look the truth straight in the eyes as the bubbling egos colored their perceptions, God help the faithful.
Despite the grace given us, we still have to brace our minds for the unexpected movements of God that can defy human explanation. Oftentimes, in order to make sense of it, we simply trust on His love and His will, and let go trying to understand the 'why.' Our thoughts are never His thoughts; our ways never His ways.
Each word we speak or write, when communicated with love, becomes an invisible hand of God that consoles those who grieve, gives hope to those who despair, and reenvigorates those who have walked in the valley of death.