Saturday night my beautiful wife and I celebrated our anniversary by driving to San Antonio for a concert. Billy Joel and Elton John. Some of you who are reading this now believe you have irrefutable proof that I am ancient. "Of course he's old he went to see two old fogies in concert." Others may see this as evidence that I am some young whippersnapper who would go pay good money to listen to that new-fangled rock and roll (this is less likely because for this to happen requires the use of a computer and the Internet). Nevertheless let me say I went to the concert (proof that I am young), found it to be a little to loud (old), during the nearly four hour concert went to the restroom only once (young!) but was tired by the end (old). All this adds up to one thing: I'm middle aged.
The concert really did cause me to reflect on aging. Joel is 59, while John turns 62 this week. Yet they both performed with passion and energy. Joel was especially vibrant, resembling a rambunctious teenager as he bounced around the stage. Watching them overwhelmed me with a singular feeling: I hope when I am their age I am still as passionate and energetic about work and life.
In one of M. Scott Peck's books he talks about working with some senior citizens. They were all retired but relatively healthy. The played golf and traveled and such. But they were no longer interested in growing, maturing, learning or changing. I do not want that to happen to me. If I am lucky enough to grow old, I hope I die working on the next sermon or writing a book. I do not want my life to move from purposeful existence to plain existence. I may retire (it would be nice to vacation and travel for a few weeks) but then I hope to take up new adventures that require growing and learning.
Sometimes we are guilty of writing off the wisdom of those who are older. We no longer live in a society that seems very interested in what our elders can teach us. But we also live in a society where many "elders" are not interested in sharing wisdom. They claim to have done their time, raised their kids, and now it is their time. Which means I now am free to be selfish.
If you are older, have tried to learn and grow throughout your life, I want to hear what you have to say. But if all you can teach me is how to fix the slice in my golf game, I've got more important things to do.
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One of the best sermons I've ever heard you preach...my favorite, I think...was about running the race PAST the finish line. Your coach (one of the biggest men you'd ever seen) told his athletes not to run to the tape, but to run to him--standing about fifteen yards beyond that.
ReplyDeleteThe time you ran your heart out and won points in the big track meet, he had special words for you and told you how proud he was of you when you crashed into his embrace.
And then, when you compared your coach's advice to running our race here on Earth...giving it everything and tearing PAST the finish line to collapse into the waiting arms of Jesus...well, it was inspired. The Holy Spirit moved among us that night.
Sometimes we middle-aged and older folks don't have much to offer beyond our broken-ness and starting-over-ness, but there's hard-learned wisdom and example in that, too.
May God always help me recover after a stumble, help me up after a fall, and may He help me run to win the crown until I sprint past the finish line...and, oh, please God, let me hear Jesus say, "Well done. I'm so proud of you."
Ok, I'm to be 60 this year, but I'm not really OLD. However, the mileage seems to have put me over that edge at times.
ReplyDeleteI always thought about all the things my husband and I could do when we retired. I'd never, ever want to be discouraging in any way, but older age is like all of life; it's not always what you had planned or wanted for yourself and those you love.
A health situation put me in retirement much sooner than we had planned, and my husband's job changes did the same for him. I can do so many things - in my mind. But my body does not always cooperate. And a newly discovered heart condition could take my sweetheart of more than 40 years away from me in an instant. I hate loneliness.
Life in retirement is mostly like life at all ages. You just gotta roll with it. And you realize it's not going to get better here on earth, like you dream about retirement is going to solve many problems and make life better, when you're middle aged. You realize your only hope of anything better is yet to come, and there's likely to be a whole lot of suffering involved, that you'd rather not endure.
But at this age, you already understand that suffering is part of life, and you pray that you will endure it in such a way as to bring glory to God. You look back and you know that your life is pretty much exactly the same as it is today, and every day; it consists of how you spend your time and energy - today.
So spend these wisely, and for goodness sake, love those kids...and old people,too. And hope some of it comes back to you when you most need it.
Not a whole lot of wisdom; only my experience. And I hope it helps you in some way.