i’m Social Porter and this is Outposts, a semi-live broadcast from the late evening, cascading banks of the Ockluhwahhah River, where the trees gently lean over the river’s edge and every evening is pleasant.
Our topic is about getting old and the modern-day challenge of actually living long enough to become gray-headed and wise. Think about it. On one hand, we’re being told people are living longer than ever, but on the other hand, there are so many ways to never make it to old age anymore, it is surely the grace of God that navigates us through life, between the glowing ignorance of dangerous situations, and even the purposeful attempts that could end in catastrophe, not to mention the options of a permanent solution to a temporary problem. i’m reminded of a story about a boy. Yea, chuckle, always a story about a boy at some point, huh?
When the boy was two years old, he seemed to have no respect for boundaries… no thought for reasons why doors were locked, why knives were hung out of his reach, ladders were out of his grasp, or why there were bars on his crib. He had an unquenchable curiosity about all things unseen and hidden, a very real “drive-you-crazy” sort of inquisitiveness… he always had an endless line of questions about how stuff worked, and why people did what they did… even at 2 going on 3. He wondered why his mother told him he shouldn’t go outside to play at three in the morning…playing was playing to him, whether it was day or night….as a result, his parents found him in the backyard sandbox in the wee hours of the early morning more than a few times. So, his dad started locking all the doors and windows in an effort to keep the boy safe. The problem was the boy didn’t understand why it wasn’t safe, after all, he didn’t see what was unsafe about a lot of things… he became an escape artist of sorts. He got good at getting out of his crib… up, over the bars, carefully down the other side, plop to the floor, and he was down the steps and out the back door to his favorite place in the sandbox with his trucks and cars, his buckets and toy building machines. His parents increasingly became more and more concerned for the well-being of the child. In great frustration, the boys’ parents, tied bed sheets across the top of the crib, locked the kitchen door and the screen door. The boy managed to work all night prying the bedsheets across the top of his crib apart, just enough to squeeze through, used the bedsheets to swing down, then down the steps to the kitchen. He got a stool to unlock the back door, a broom to jimmy open the screen door latch, and man… he was f-r-e-e! The neighbors told the parents the boy was a dangerous child and would never live to see the age of seven. All things came to a head when the boys’ father heard a noise in the kitchen early early one morning before daylight. Upon investigation, he found his now 3-year-old son, sitting on the floor with a butcher knife, stabbing the top of a can of apple juice because he wanted some apple juice. The parents were now beginning to truly believe, their darling child was so inquisitive and headstrong, surely it was true, he’d never make seven years old before being killed somehow. It seemed he’d never see middle age much less old age.
Honestly, i’m as surprised as anyone else that i have lived to be 70+ years old, it’s just incredible looking back at the crazy stuff i did and the situations i got myself into out of sheer ignorance and even willful disregard of the consequences. Now that i’m this old, i realize how much the Lord spared me terrible injury or death. i didn’t know much to be honest. Not only did i not have any input from elders, but if i did i certainly didn’t listen. Oh sure, i nodded when a grey head would advise me to not do something, but then, in all my youthful arrogance, i did what i wanted to do anyway. Even in my 20’s and 30’s, i’m sure the old guys in my life looked at me and shook their heads thinking, “He’ll never see 50.”
Not only does the Lord give us the elderly for wisdom and understanding, but God Himself is considered the Ancient of Days, wisest of the wise, smartest of the smart, and understands all our ways better than anyone.
i’ve often thought to myself that the reason wisdom is with the aged is because they’ve tried the way of the rash and young before, and things didn’t work out as a young imagination figured they would. i used to visit retirement homes and occasionally got in great conversations, and one of those was with an old fella named Bob who was in his 90s… one day i posed him a problem i was having with a man at church who, no matter how nice i was, he just seemed to have it out for me. As Bob sat crumpled to one side in his comfortable chair, him with his Velcro strapped shoes and old plaid collared shirt… after i explained my dilemma, he looked at me through aged, cloudy blue eyes, smiled his old smile with crooked teeth and said, “Just let it go son, just let it go. Offense is a waste of time. It doesn’t go anywhere and doesn’t do anything but wound everyone involved, especially yourself. If you can’t make peace with the fellow, then quietly leave him to his life and find something better. The Lord will show you. Believe me, i’ve been where you are and discovered, the hard way, there are better things to do than to wrestle with someone who won’t make peace. Just….let it go.” The smile fell from his face for a moment, then with all sincerity, looked me in the eye and reiterated, “I said to quietly let it go young man.”
Bob knew stuff. i listened for a change and did as he suggested, and life became far less contentious. Imagine that. i remember laying in my bed at night thinking to myself that i didn’t have anyone older than myself in my life and asked the Lord for wisdom and understanding… He suggested i visit the elderly. i’ve realized, the older i get, the fewer old folks i’ve got in my life, and now, i am becoming one of the old folks, which means in all my foolishness, the Lord made a way for me to actually become “old and full of days”. The older i get the fewer old folks there are… i consider it a loss of valuable people.
Leviticus 19:32 “Rise in the presence of the aged, show respect for the elderly and revere your God. I am the Lord.”
To be aged and elderly carries with it the idea of those who are nearing the vanishing point. In 1Chron23:1 the elderly are referred to as being “old and full of days”, a nice poetic way of saying someone is getting up in their years. Although the term “old” is typically an adjective, in almost all Hebrew words, the root is a three-letter verb… in this case “old” as a verb, denotes a state or condition rather than an activity or event. The word for “old age”, in the scripture of first mention occurs in Gen 21:2, in reference to Sarah. Into God’s description of “old age” is built time and a crown, honor, and faithfulness. The letters of the word imply, as a man or woman of God in our “old age”, we are approaching our final form, and the truth of God is concealed in our heart, which is why i say that the idea of getting old, literally means one approaching their vanishing point… As we age, our “waters are closed up” so to speak, our joints don’t work like they used to, our eyes and ears aren’t as sharp, we don’t have the endurance to run with the young anymore, nor do we recover as quickly as we used to. Our prospects of marriage and having more children come to a close. But God has given those of us who are elderly a value as wise advisors… which, i believe, is truly an invaluable resource in today’s economy which seems to employ such little wisdom.
In Ezekiel 7:26, the value of the aged advisors was rejected by Rehoboam. In 1 Kings 12:6, the king asked those advisors who were “old and full of days” for their counsel, and they gave him very wise counsel, only to be rejected and the cruel, violent, and rash counsel of young men was taken instead. Rehoboam did evil in the sight of the Lord.
God had Jeremiah prophesy to all the cities of Judah in Jeremiah 26, that if they didn’t give heed to what the Lord was saying, He was going to allow terrible things to occur to them. In a rage, the priests, prophets, and all the people grabbed the prophet with the intention of killing him for not telling them wonderful, sweeping prophecies of blessing and prosperity, but instead, he prophesied against the city. In vs 17, the advice of the elders saved Jeremiah’s life, preventing the offended people, priests, and prophets from putting him to death. i can also testify that the advice to me from those much older than myself has also saved my life, on more than one occasion.
The old ones of the Lord are to be revered and honored. Prov20:29, “The glory of young men is their strength, but the splendor of old men is their gray hair,” and “Grandchildren are the crown of the aged..”, Prov17:6. Our elderly folks are to be appreciated and honored, but yet in our society not only do 28% of our seniors live alone, but in their isolation their risk of abuse, depression, and an increasing pessimism about the future rises exponentially. Those with grey hair get lonely, just like anyone else, and loneliness is contagious. Remember, someday, you too, Lord willing, will be old….do those statistics sound like a life you’d like to lead?
We live in a society that seems to be totally obsessed with being young. Especially in America. So many games and amusement, retailed goods, political practices, and even our economy is all geared to the younger generation…..why is that? Even the elderly change their hair and get plastic surgery, often doing almost anything possible to keep from looking old. i don’t know about you, but it is settled in my heart that i’m going to simply look like myself, sagging eyelids, turkey neck, dwindled muscle mass, and all.
Many years ago i went early to a very fancy mall. i got there early and had to wait for stores to open. i sat in front of a Tommy Bahama store on a bench, just watching the few people who were there getting ready for the opening of the business day. Shortly i began to smell suntan lotion, then i was hearing in the distance, seagulls and ocean waves crashing… there were sounds of children laughing, and indistinguishable adult conversations like moms talking at the beach while watching the kids. Incredibly, i also smelled salty ocean air. Although, obviously, i was not at the beach, it smelled and sounded like i was at the beach. As i sat there i noticed the huge bathing suit display in the windows of the store…and suddenly i got it. The smells were being sprayed by little DC drive atomizers above my head, and the sounds of the beach were played by small speakers that sat next to the atomizers. The entire idea was to put into the minds of shoppers the memories of being at the beach, laughing, talking, and what a wonderful time was had in order to compel the shopper to come in and buy something. That same day, i spoke with a regional manager of several jewelry stores, relaying my experience in front of Tommy Bahama, and he told me there were three, thick, 3-ring binders outlining the psychological profiling of shoppers and that the entire mall was designed in such a way, by colors, music, and smells, to pull people in the front entrance, push them down the long halls of the mall, and out the other end. i remember thinking that everything was geared toward the young, children, women, and families…
By observation on my part, i expect the world to act like this, but i see the church carrying on in the same way. So much of church life caters to the young – the music, the worship styles, and even the sermons have to be upbeat, contemporary, and relevant to today’s generation.
But from God’s perspective, those who are older are valuable in church leadership, they have wisdom and maturity because they are “older and full of days”. i can testify of my own growth, not because i’m so good, but because when it comes to church leadership and wisdom, i have done it wrong just about every which-a-way you can imagine…as a result of my foolishness, i can say i actually know something about life for a change.
i am disturbed by church leadership who passover the elderly as advisors, picking more modern and relevant young people, not that the younger ones don’t have a role to play in the work, of course, but, as i see it, one over-arching condition of spiritual leadership is wisdom, maturity, experience, and understanding.
1 Timothy 5:1-2, “Do not rebuke an older man but encourage him as you would a father, younger men as brothers, older women as mothers, younger women as sisters, in all purity.”
Contrary to the myth about aging, those who are “old and full of days” don’t necessarily lose their intellect, perception, or their decision-making abilities. There are countless elders in history who are brilliant examples of creative, active, and productive people. By example, at 71, Michael Angelo was appointed the chief architect of St. Peter’s Cathedral in Rome; George Bernhard Shaw, the Irish dramatist and author, wrote Farfetched Fables at 93; Polish-born Arthur Rubinstein gave a stunning performance at Carnegie Hall at the age of 90….and that’s just a very few. There are millions of elderly people who are still productive and active in their own way and want to keep being that way.
In Psalm 92:14-15, the Lord makes a promise to the elderly. He says, “The righteous flourish like the palm tree and grow like a cedar in Lebanon. They are planted in the house of the LORD; they flourish in the courts of our God. They still bear fruit in old age; they are forever full of sap and green, to declare that the LORD is upright; he is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in him.”
In Exodus 20:12, growing old became a symbol of blessing, wisdom, and righteousness – an honorable practice by which God rewarded those who honored their own parents: “Honor your father and your mother, so that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you.”
The fact that someone has gray hair itself is considered a crown and a sure sign of growing old all throughout history…not just a reason to disregard them. Proverbs 16:31, “Gray hair is a crown of glory; it is gained in a righteous life.”
And then, let’s talk about Moses. He was the son of Amram, whose name in Hebrew is revealed to mean “friend of the most high”. Moses’ name meant “deliverer, and “the divine revelation of God revealed”. As a result we could say that the “Divine revelation of God revealed” was the son of “the friend of God”. Moses was 80 years old when God called him to lead His people to the Promised Land. Although he was very old by the standards of his day, Moses became the historian, leader, and statesman of Israel. When he was around 85 years of age, Joshua was divinely appointed to succeed Moses, and when Moses died at approximately 120 years of age, Deuteronomy 34:7 says, “His eye was undimmed, and his vigor unabated.”
In Luke 2:22-38, Simeon, whose name means “one who hears and obeys” and Anna, whose name means “grace”, are the prophetic voices welcoming Jesus. Both were very old and full of days. Old Simeon, who did the law, fixed his eyes on Jesus, the grace of God revealed, and in vs 28 it says, “he took him up in his arms, blessed God and said, “Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace, according to your word; for my eyes have seen your salvation that you have prepared in the presence of all peoples, a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and for glory to your people Israel.”
When the old, gray, and bearded Simeon, the one who “heard and obeyed” saw that grace had come, he died shortly thereafter, as had been promised by the Holy Spirit that Simeon would not die before he had seen the Lord’s Messiah, the grace of God. Or metaphorically, when the law saw that grace had come, the law knew its job had been fulfilled, and grace would take over from here.
The value of our elderly should never be pushed aside…we are diminishing them, and in my opinion, we are making our society poorer through the lack of employing their wisdom, experience, and maturity.
Let us be diligent and not underestimate God’s continual use of our elders…they are valuable and need to be honored and respected. 2 Corinthians 4:16, “Therefore we do not lose heart. Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day.” Amen.
i recently read a book by Dr. Viktor E. Frankl, who lived through incredible horror in Nazi concentration camps… he said that there is no reason to pity old people. Then he adds, “Instead, young people should envy them.” Why? Because seniors have something young people don’t possess. Frankl says that seniors have realities in the past – the potentialities they have actualized, the values they have realized – and nothing and nobody can ever remove these assets from the past.
Without the God-infused elderly in our places of worship, the church wouldn’t be what it is today. They are the very epitome of our story as believers. Of course, it doesn’t make good sense to expect all the elderly to have the “wisdom of their years,” but i don’t believe there can ever be a substitute for some of the old people in our churches who pass on their wisdom to those around them.
Again, without the righteous old folks, we, the church, would not be who we are today. Throughout history, the church, and even the world, up until the last 50 years, has frowned on separating the young from the old through facilitating more and more youth services, and fewer and fewer opportunities for their seniors. Many years ago, i even attended a fellowship where no older people were expected to attend. But according to scripture, old and young belong together. They are all part of the great family of God.
This production was sponsored by Living In His Name Ministries, The Mebane Freedom League, the Candy Cottage in Salmon Idaho, Sisters Coffee Company, and of course, our always beloved friends at Trinity Bakers, where there’s always something oh so good in the oven. We certainly appreciate all their support. We are a non-profit, tax-exempt organization, and all music use is BMI licensed.
It is truly a wonder the boy at beginning of the program even lived to be gray, and bearded… yet getting older and wiser all the time. My questioning and inquisitiveness have never faded, in fact, the older i get, the more i look at faraway hills and wonder what’s on the other side, but at the same time, my tired eyes increasingly look to Heaven’s gate as i near the time of arriving at my own vanishing point. Don’t listen to the “belittlers”, the “old and full of days” are valuable. Do you have anyone older than you in your life? Take time to cultivate relationships with the elderly…. the stories are amazing, the like of which you’ll never hear again. Face it, when those old folks are gone, their stories are gone with them. Think about it.
Drive carefully this week, read your Bible, and pay attention to the whispers in your heart, God is, after all speaking to us. Be strong and courageous, amen!