Welcome to Paul Tripp's Wednesday's Word podcast. I'm Dalton, a member of the Paul Tripp

Ministries team. And each week, I'll read aloud Paul's popular Wednesday's word devotional,

short, powerful reflections that connect the transforming power of Jesus Christ to everyday life.

You can get each week's devotional straight to your inbox by subscribing at paultrip.com slash Wednesday or you can find it anytime on our website the Paul Tripp app or on Facebook and Instagram. This week, Paul reminds us that the real trouble with aging isn't just the passing of time but how we interpret the unexpected events and new awareness it breaks.

Here's this week's Wednesday's word.

Over the last two weeks, we have been considering what I call the eight Ds of aging,

eight different struggles we experience as we age, progressing through this journey called life in a fallen world. They are dissatisfaction, disorientation, discouragement, dread, disappointment, disinterest, distance, and distraction.

Each of these struggles will present uniquely, depending on the individual.

We may experience them at different times, or simultaneously for various reasons.

But they all have common threads that run through them.

I want to consider what creates and causes these unique challenges, perhaps even leading to crisis,

as we approach midlife and beyond.

More importantly, I want to help prepare our hearts

to respond biblically to the inevitable difficulty. Remember, it's first and foremost the

struggles inside us that cause us to struggle with the struggles outside us. We will trouble our

own trouble because of how we respond unbiblically to the trouble that comes with aging.

So what causes trouble with age?

I will cover three this week and two more next. Number one, unexpected events. There's a way in

which we don't live our life, but our life lives us. We get carried along by its locations,

relationships, situations, responsibilities, opportunities, and activities without stopping to look, listen, and consider.

Huge chunks of time can pass virtually unnoticed. Then we experience some unexpected event that

suddenly opens our eyes. People who study these things call them trigger events, and often because

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