Thoughts on Aging

You can share thoughts on aging, but there is nothing you can do to slow it down or reverse it. You can stop it, but the consequences leave matters out of your hands. Since it is happening to me and everyone I know, here are some of my personal reflections.

The book of Ecclesiastes has some beautiful phrases on aging though not always optimistic. (Ecclesiastes 12) The Apostle Paul says those who have survived the years should use their experience to assist those who are younger through their example. (I Timothy 5:1; Titus 2:2) We can only hope the years have brought some added wisdom.

My recent 63^rd birthday has prompted this blog, that milestone and the fact that two of the members of my Monday morning Bible study also had recent birthdays. The elder reached 99 and the younger moved into the decade of the 90s. Both are very active, in reasonable health, and enjoy listening to my scriptural exposition as well as laughing at my semi-humorous comments. They have learned through the years how to laugh at poorly told jokes.

That is the positive side of aging. The not so positive side becomes visible when the mind begins to depart while the body remains strong. The beauty of aging disappears in the face of Alzheimer’s disease or some other form of dementia. Our prayers change from “Lord, help me age gracefully” to “Lord, spare me from aging like that.” Our medical science has provided us more years for the body than it has years for the mind. Aging can be a fearful thing.

Optimism can have its day as we remember that aging is automatic, but how we age need not be out of our control. Exercises for the body help both it and the mind maintain a healthier condition. Good nutrition is a basic need for both mind and body. An extra ingredient in this recipe for an improved aging process is attitude. What you think about what you are has a high level of influence over what you can become.

Are you just talking yourself into a different viewpoint? Perhaps, but there is certainly nothing wrong with that. Are you realigning your priorities and what are matters of importance? Of course you are, but that is something you should be doing all your life.  Are you deciding that maybe the future can in some measure be controlled by how we approach it? You have arrived at a fundamental understanding of your life and its future.

As I have been told multiple times, the one thing every individual always has under personal control is attitude. No one makes you happy. You decide that something makes you happy. No one can force you to become angry. You decide that what has happened justifies a response of anger.

The same is true of our attitude toward aging. We can decide if we will fight aging (although I don’t think that’s a battle anyone can win). We can decide if we will gracefully and peacefully drift into the years of physical and mental decline. We can be frustrated we are not thirty with the capabilities of that age. We could decide that every change in life can be met with an attitude of finding the opportunities the new context presents. We may discover we are growing as individuals even while the physical world says we should be dying.

Our cells have been dying since the day we were born. As we progressed through life, we DECIDED to do what each stage of life said we were capable of doing. I suggest, and intend to live as such, there is no such thing as a forced surrender to dying. I am alive and one day I will be dead. Until the day I am dead, there will be something in each stage of life I can do. If I can only pat the hand that pats mine, I will do it with an attitude of gratitude. And if I cannot do even that, then I will depend upon my God to know what my desires would be if I could fulfill them.

A Very Precious Crop

Recently I head the Children’s Minister for one of my churches speak in a Sunday morning service recognizing the importance of the little people in the family of faith. She made a comment that caused me to grimace just a little bit, but I knew what she meant. She said, “I am not a gardener. When I plant seeds, I don’t know if they will grow.”

Of course she was talking about getting her hands dirty out in the yard trying to get flowers to grow. However, I wanted to stand up and say, “Give yourself some credit, girl. You are working in the most important garden God has made, the lives of little children.” The rest of her message said as much, emphasizing the importance of the nurturing we give the next generation.

We who are adults now are important. We are the current leaders. We are the current decision makers. We are the determiners of the context in which the next generation will have to make its decisions. We need to remember the day will come when that generation will be making those decisions, and some of those decisions will affect our final years. Be nice to your children. They will choose your nursing home. (That is not original from me!)

An article from the University of Missouri-Columbia (Child Development – How Preschoolers Develop) shares this information. At birth an infant is nearly one third of its height when it finishes growing. By the time a child is two, its physical height is almost half its adult height. One of the critical personality traits learned during these first years while physical growth is occurring is trust. It is the foundation for future relationships and the positive experiences those relationships can provide.

Linda Carrol, writing for MSNBC (Personality May Be Set By Preschool), cites a series of studies that indicate a significant part of a child’s personality is set by age three. This does not preclude, however, additional changes by events and decisions later in life. She quotes one researcher as saying within an individual’s personality, “tremendous change occurs even up until the 50s.” Foundations are laid in the preschool years. The walls of the personality structure can still be shaped through nearly a life span.

The book of Proverbs speaks of the value of the children in our midst and the importance of proper nurture. We must be intentional in shaping the pliable side of the personality. Training given at an early age will last for a lifetime (22:6). Appropriate discipline will provide guidance for future decisions (23:13-18; 29:17).

This children’s minster was working with a most precious crop. She was planting seed that would sprout in the years ahead and bear much fruit. But like the grains and grasses in the fields of a farm, these sprouts would continue to need nurture and care. Much would be accomplished in those first three to four years, but the molding would not be finished for decades to come.

Within the home family, biological or adopted, and within the family of faith, our children deserve our best. They deserve our selfless love. They deserve our wisdom gained through our years of experience. They deserve our grace even as we have received grace from our heavenly Father. They deserve the opportunity grow and become independent within the arms of a loving family that will teach them dependence upon a Father who will always be with them and love them beyond all human understanding.

Jesus said to let the children come to him for to such belongs the Kingdom of heaven. (Mark 10:13-16) In the innocence of a childlike faith, God asks his children to come to him. He seeks their love even as he seeks to give them his love. They approach the heavenly Father with the same trust they should learn to have in their earthly fathers. It is critical that we give the children of our families and churches the opportunity to learn to trust the God who gave them life.

Who Wants to Be Revived?

This is the season for gardening, watching azaleas bloom, wishing you could die instead of going through any more pollen explosions, and counting the days until professional football starts. For many churches it is also the season for scheduling their semi-annual series of worship services called spring revivals.

Churches schedule a set of evening services for their members and community generally with a guest preacher, sometimes guest musicians, and lasting from one day to two weeks or longer. In preparation the calendar is cleared of all other activities, publicity is spread throughout the congregation, and members are encouraged to invite everyone they know. Members are also asked to spend time praying for desired outcomes either alone or in groups.

Among us Baptists that is where we have our challenge, deciding what are our desired outcomes. We want to see new energy in the congregation. We want to see a renewed vision for ministry. We want to see people who are out of relationship with Christ develop one that offers new life. Unfortunately too often the results can be boiled down to one question in everyone’s mind. Did we get revived?

Perhaps a better question would be do we want to be revived. We say we want spiritual energy to come into our family of faith. We want a restoration of faith in the miraculous power of God. We want to see the pattern of lives change into spiritually healthy and growing individuals fully devoted to God. We want to see marriages strengthened. We want to see children begin the journey of Christian faith. We want to see priorities focus upon glorifying God through a renewed emphasis upon serving others in the name of Christ.

Do we also want to be revived to a life that brings the responsibilities of service and sacrifice? Revival services that fill a slot in the calendar and allow us to feel that we have tried is not revival but another church program maintained to sooth our spiritually shallow commitment to Christ and the Christian life. As the last song ends and the last church supper remains are cleaned up, members head home weary but relieved they have satisfied the requirements for being faithful, religious children of God. Being revived through transformation is not a priority for their lives.

Revival, being instilled with a renewed life to be given over to God, means change. We can easily say we want to be revived, we want to live a life that reveals more of Christ in us and honors our heavenly Father. Saying that is not the same thing as being willing to accept the changes that go along with being revived. We may not be so quick to pray for revival when we realize the sacrificial service that is required to live out the revived life.

To be transformed through spiritual revival would lead to loving God with all our heart, soul, mind, and spirit and loving our neighbor as ourselves (Mark 12:28-31). To experience spiritual revival would involve a rejection of temptation to conform to this world and choosing rather to be transformed by a renewing of the mind (Romans 12:2). To experience spiritual revival would be to consider others more important than ourselves (Romans 12:3, 10, 16) A life impacted by spiritual revival would seek to serve rather than lead (Mark 10:43-45), seek to give rather than receive (Acts 20:35), seek to be redemptive rather than judgmental (Matthew 6:14-15). A life that has been touched by spiritual revival will operate on a different standard from the world, returning good for evil (Romans 12:17, 21).

If we reap the fruit of true revival, we will be different from the world. We will stand out from the world. We will live by a different standard, respond in different ways, and represent a spiritual ethic that will not just be different from that of society, but will stand in judgment upon society without us uttering a single condemnatory word. To put it bluntly, if we live lives that have been transformed by spirit-deep revival, the world won’t like us very much. Are we ready to accept that?

The Risk of Prayer

I’m sure you have heard the saying about prayer, “Be careful what you ask for. You might just get it!” There is this other one, however, “God doesn’t give us what we ask for. He gives us what we expect.” The risk in praying is not so much in getting that for which we ask as it is in realizing that all we are getting is what we expected, and that is far less than our request or what God wanted to give us.

We often pray believing God is all-powerful, but at the same time believe his power will not be revealed in answering our requests. We ask for great things, but are not surprised when nothing much happens. On the other hand we are astounded when our prayers are answered and act as if an unexpected miracle has occurred.

One of my favorite authors on prayer is Andrew Murray, and one of my favorite books by him is With Christ in the School of Prayer. Murray takes his reader deep into the questions we raise about prayer: appropriate topics, perseverance, faith for answered prayers, response to unanswered prayers, requirements for answered prayer. He speaks to the question of risking prayer that reveals the depth of our faith as he says, “We do not live close enough to God to be capable of the confidence that He will answer…Let us pray for a life in union with Christ, so that His compassion streams into us and His Spirit assures that our prayer is heard.” (Chapter 9)

The 18^th chapter of Luke focuses upon prayer and the perseverance that is often needed. It also includes tips on the kind of prayer that gets God’s attention and brings about results. There is risk involved, however, in those two initial parables Jesus uses to teach on prayer. In the first the risk is in making the faith-filled commitment to continue praying even when the answer is silence. Perseverance is a statement of faith. I believe even when I see nothing happening.

The Pharisee in the second parable knows little of the faith being exercised by the tax collector. He finds no risk in expounding upon his self-righteousness. He prays only to himself. The sinner off in the corner alone is risking everything by being honest in confession before God.

The leper who met Jesus as recorded in the opening verses of Matthew, chapter 8, dares to place his faith in Christ on the line when he said, “Lord, if you will, you can make me clean.” Such a statement revealed trust in power but uncertainty in desire. The leper uttered a prayer of faith in the power of God, but he uttered no confident assurance that God would respond. He risked his perception of a compassionate God in that simple request.

For prayer to have power, a risk must be taken. Faith without risk is not faith. Prayer without faith cannot have power. We pray to a God we cannot control. We pray to a God whose ultimate will trumps our own. We pray to a God whom we can only understand through his revelation in Jesus Christ. We pray to the One we are told we should see as our Father, the Father who will give us what we need. We pray to the One who knows what we need better than we ourselves. Our prayers consist of the risk of throwing ourselves before him and believing he will do what is best.

Prayer that has substance involves the risk of giving up our own will in surrender to the divine will. Jesus understood this well. (Matthew 26:36-46) The Pharisee of Matthew 18 didn’t learn this. Too many people today who say they pray still have not learned it. The honest prayer of faith brings power, but it involves risk. (James 5:16) Such prayer also says you had better be ready to respond according to God’s answer.

God’s the Owner, But We’re Accountable

Earth Day is Monday, April 22. This year the focus is upon climate change and how that impacts human society and the natural world around us. People on every continent will be called upon to see how man’s interaction with nature may be hurting it. Whatever your feelings may be concerning the reality of climate change and its causes, the truth is by living on this planet you are affecting it.

I grew up on a farm. We grew most of our food. It was not unusual on a mid-summer day to look around the dinner table and note the only thing we had not raised was the cornbread. My mother refused to use the corn meal my father would occasionally try to grind. The milk, the beef, the vegetables, and the fruit had all been raised on our farm. My father’s guiding philosophy was “Take care of the land and it will take care of you.” Another part of my father’s philosophy concerning farming was expressed one day while surveying a 20-acre field of half grown corn. Leaning on a gate at the edge of the field, Pop said, “It’s good to be able to work with God and raise a crop like this.”

The East African word of wisdom has much truth, but it comes up a little short. “We have not inherited the earth from our parents. We have borrowed it from our children.” It misses the issue of true ownership. While we care for the land, we are stewards, but stewardship is far more than a matter of economics. It is far more than just acknowledging that others will use the land after we are gone.

It is a matter of understanding who the real Owner is and acting accordingly. It is a matter of understanding the world is not ours to do with as we please. It is a matter of understanding the consequences of our actions not just for the generations who follow us but also in our accountability before the One who is both Creator and Owner.

The Psalmist wrote, “The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof, the world and those who dwell therein.” (Psalm 24:1, RSV) A good steward will care for what does not belong to him in the same way he would if it was his own. He will make sure it is there for him next year even though he must use it this year. He will understand even as he depends upon that resource so will those who come after him whether it is to be his children or a stranger.

Humanity is a steward of this planet and its resources. Even if we had other planets to which we could go as colonists, we would still have a responsibility for this world. The fact that we are stewards would not change. We have a responsibility. We must consider ourselves accountable. To our children, yes, but even more so we must consider ourselves accountable to the One Creator and Owner.

Global warming may well indeed be related to the way we have used our natural resources. It may be related more to the fact of our wastefulness than our simple use of those resources. Even if we have used the resources in a responsible way, when we impact our environment in a way that changes it, we are to be held accountable. We must live in this world in a way that shows we are not thinking in a sense of personal ownership.

Christians more than any others should understand their positions as stewards. Caring for the earth should come as a natural part of worship of the Creator. Recycling is good economics for both the present and the future. Using fewer resources for personal desires makes more materials available to meet the needs of the poor and more food for those facing hunger. Good stewardship of the earth should always point to a responsibility for our fellow man.

Earth Day should be every day for those who honor the Creator above the creation.