Aging Gracefully

“Remember your Creator in the days of your youth... (Ecc. 12:1 NIV).

Some of us aren’t young anymore. As the Amplified Bible and many other scholars interpret Ecclesiastes 12, our moon and stars have darkened (sight is impaired), clouds return after the rain (gloominess threatens), the keepers of the house (arms and hands) tremble and the strong men (arms and legs) bow themselves. The grinders (teeth) cease because they are few, and those that look out of the window (eyes) are darkened…

We rise up at the voice of the bird (awaken very early) and the daughters of music (the voice and the ear) are brought low. There is a fear of heights, and the almond tree has blossomed (white hair) and the grasshopper (a little thing) is a burden,, and desires and appetites fail and we draw nearer to the end of this life…

And many of us didn’t remember our Creator in the days of our youth. Some of us forgot Him temporarily; others of us find that for whole chunks of our youth and years of our young adulthood, we scarcely gave Him the time of day. We were busy, as Pastor Ben aptly put it, “making the most of ourselves.”

So, what about us? The older ones with regrets and wasted years? Who, because insomnia plagues and energy eludes us, have plenty of time to sit around and listen to the tapes that play on our mind… What if I had remembered? What might I have done for the kingdom? What will I say to Him on that Day?

Hear the good word of Scripture: ours is a God of grace. A God who pays the one who works all day and the one who comes to the fields very late, the same wages: eternal life Mt. 20:1-16). A God who welcomes us in a spirit of grace, not according to our works (or lack of works). A God who comes to us in our shame and regret and puts His hand under our chin and lifts our head, saying,

“Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past.
See, I am doing a new thing!
Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?”

And when we really perceive grace, when we finally get it, we’re done with the past. It was what it was – but by the grace of God it is forgiven and remembered against us no more, and we are free to say with the Apostle Paul: “One thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 3:13,14).

Saving the City

Didn’t you feel sorry Sunday for the poor but wise man who saved the city (Ecc. 9:15)… but nobody remembered? Another case of “Unfair and Meaningless!” in Solomon’s litany. But then, people have always been quietly saving the day without receiving compensation or recognition or promotion.

“March Madness” is a good example. If you’re at all interested in this popular college basketball tournament, you probably know the big names and the high scorers (usually one and the same, right?) But there’s another term floating around besides points and rebounds, vital as they are. It’s the word “assists.” What is an assist?

When a player gets the ball to a teammate in a way that results in that teammate scoring a basket, the first player receives credit for an assist. He or she has assisted in the scoring of that basket. They didn’t make the two points, but they were a vital part of the process. Without their effort, no basket.

An assist is a humble and unselfish act. It’s acknowledging that someone else is in a better position to get the job done. It’s intentionally helping them to do it. And it’s being okay with them getting the glory.

Besides, while the crowd is cheering the slam-dunking center and the guard who just sank a three-pointer from center court, a statistician on the sidelines is silently keeping record. Who fed the center the ball? Who bounce-passed it to that guard just when he broke free to shoot? Those who know the game best are watching closely. Players who assist do not remain anonymous.

In the game of life, too, Somebody is watching; Someone is remembering. All your assists – those things you do that help others in a vital way but don’t rack up any points or seem worthy of notice from others… are properly noted, and will be fully rewarded.

So let’s not get petty and self-serving. There are a lot of quietly vital things that can be done. There are many heroes poised to save the day, but they need an assist – a word of encouragement or a bit of financial backing or some wise counsel. You just may have what they need. Are you willing to part with it, no strings attached?

As famous basketball coach John Wooden has been credited with saying: “It is amazing how much can be accomplished if no one cares who gets the credit.” Poet Henry W. Longfellow put it another way. “Give what you have. To someone, it may be better than you dare to think.”

Your assist and their effort… together you just might “save the city.”

The Option

Solomon scratched his kingly head over the question that was put to us Sunday: Why aren’t comforts and crosses handed out in a more predictable fashion? Why isn’t life fair? Elizabeth Skoglund wrote the question another way, in her book Amma:

Belzec concentration camp was one of Hitler’s worst…No one went to Belzec to work, and there was no way of escape except through death… A little child who was going in to be gassed at Belzic saw the darkness of the room, and like an animal who is beaten and does not understand why, was heard to say: “It’s so dark, and I was being so good.”

None of us have faced such a horrific injustice as Belzec concentration camp, and yet haven’t we all felt the bewilderment of having done our best with the difficult circumstances we were given, of having behaved well under upheaval and hostile treatment… only to see the lights go out and a fresh horror begin? "It's so dark, and I was being so good."

Life isn’t fair. But I think we have to add something to the statement, something that is bracing, something that rekindles faith and hope. Life isn’t fair… yet. Jesus’ parables repeatedly assure us: the unrighteous will be separated from the righteous and each will go to their reward. Justice will be served… in the end.

In the meantime, we have an option. To allow our faith to become stunted and our spiritual strength to atrophy as we languish in doubt and self-pity… or to feed on God’s promises and encourage ourselves in the Lord and say with a Scottish Covenanter who was imprisoned on “The Bass,” a lone island off Scotland:

“I grow under the load.”

The Spirit of Worship

A. W. Tozer, whom Pastor Rick mentioned in Sunday’s sermon, is the most qualified writer on worship that I know.

Evangelist Leonard Ravenhill once visited Tozer and talked with him in his study. “Len,” Tozer pointed to a hooked rug on the floor, “in the morning when I come in, there is where I kneel to pray… and sometimes when I get up, the sun has gone down.”

I do not relate this to elevate Tozer, but to affirm that he was a man who was captivated by God and knew what worship was – and he had this to say about it: “I believe that the reverential fear of God mixed with love and fascination and astonishment and admiration and devotion is the most enjoyable state and the most purifying emotion the human soul can know.”

In his sermon series, Worship: The Missing Jewel of the Evangelical Church, Tozer described four factors present in worship:

Boundless confidence - confidence is necessary to respect, and respect is necessary to worship.
Admiration – appreciation of the excellency of God.
Fascination – to be captivated and charmed and entranced with who God is, and struck with astonished wonder at His magnitude and splendor.
Adoration – to love God with fear and wonder and yearning and awe.

And when these factors are present, Tozer believed, we are worshipping. Sometimes simply and quietly, sometimes with overwhelming emotions; sometimes from the mountaintop and sometimes from the valley. Sometimes the praise will come pouring forth, and sometimes it will be a statement of faith in spite of feelings that have temporarily run dry…

And it’s easier, I believe, to learn true worship than we realize. It’s not some lofty state that’s attainable by only a few. We just need to confess our own inability to worship God like that, and our desire and intention to do what it takes to get there. Do you think God would ignore a request like that?

No, He will not… but beware. He will most certainly dismantle all our lesser gods. He will take away our confidence in earthly things. He will make us dissatisfied with things that captivate most people’s attention, and casual about things they consider sacred. We will be different… and it will be worth it. Because God will increasingly reveal Who He is and what He’s up to and why we can trust Him, until we are captivated and charmed … “lost in wonder, love and praise.”

What a Wonderful World

Back in the sixties, Louis Armstrong recorded a memorable song by Bob Thiele, "What a Wonderful World." You remember Louis’ throaty “I see skies of blue…red roses too… and I think to myself, what a wonderful world.”

If Solomon were alive today, somehow I don’t think Louis would be invited to sing for the king’s supper. Solomon didn’t seem to think it was a wonderful world at all. In fact, he and Louis appear to be polar opposites. While Solomon plaintively wailed about oppressed people and lazy fools and solitary workaholics, Louis crooned of “friends shaking hands,” “bright blessed days” and “dark, sacred nights.” Where the jaded king saw loneliness and oppression and fruitless toil and meaninglessness (and declared that the dead are happier than the living), Louis saw beauty in the faces of those around him and celebrated the potential in a baby and summed it all up with, “What a wonderful world.”

It’s telling that Solomon’s pessimism came from looking at the effects of sin –injustice and discontentment and futility. Louis’ optimism came from looking at God’s handiwork – skies and roses and rainbows and babies and true friendship…

We can’t write off either perspective. One is just as real as the other. But one is temporary and one is eternal. The good news is that Solomon’s awful, terrible, pointless, unhappy world is on its way out, destined to be overpowered by a Kingdom where no tears or loneliness or discontentment of any kind is even possible. In fact, it’s being overpowered now as sons and daughters of the King turn from fruitless and selfish pursuits and seek His will and His glory. As they realize they are never alone. As they work in confidence that all their toil will be rewarded, and in the assurance that Someone will right every injustice - and not just in the sweet bye and bye. They know that even here, under the sun, where the prince of this world holds humanity in chains of darkness, the lonely days are made bright and blessed and the dark nights are made sacred because Jesus has redeemed even them if we trust in Him.

It’s not a “Pollyanna” approach that has us stuffing our fingers in our ears and singing loudly to shut out the harsh realities… It’s just the Truth. In this world we will have trouble… loneliness, victimization, heartache… but Jesus has overcome it. Past tense. So we can “be of good cheer.” We can live here and now, under this sun, to the tune of “What a Wonderful World.” Because of Jesus. Only because of Him.

Sing it again, Louie. And Solomon, listen up. This one’s for you.