I enjoyed reading Lionel Windsor’s notes on “The gospel and ageing” in a recent Briefing. He rightly observes that in our culture we are very negative about ageing because it represents the opposite of our core values:
We live in a society that puts a huge value on freedom, choice, fulfilment of desires, strength and independence. All these values are far more obtainable by the young than by the old. Increasing age means diminishing freedom, limited choice, lower potential for fulfilment, increasing weakness and growing dependence.
In addition, Windsor observes that “we believe old people actually limit the potential of the young people around them”, thus treating them as a ‘burden.’
However, as Windsor points out: ”The doctrine of creation reminds us that God has created a good and ordered world for humans to rule under his loving oversight.” In such a world, if the young are informed by a biblical perspective, they will recognise that old people are not a burden, but indispensable: “we can’t do without them”; we need godly old people in our communities, homes and churches.
To Windsor’s helpful comments we might add perspectives aired in the book of Ecclesiastes. Here is the what the Preacher (Koheleth) has to say to the young:
Rejoice, O young man, in your youth, and let your heart cheer you in the days of your youth. Walk in the ways of your heart and the sight of your eyes. But now that for all these things God will bring you into judgment.
Remove vexation from your heart, and put away pain (or “evil”) from your body, for youth and the dawn of life are vanity.
Remember also your Creator in the days of your youth, before the evil days come and the years draw near… [that is, the years of old age as graphically described in the verses that follow, culminating in death, with dust returning to the earth and the spirit "to God who gave it"] (Ecclesiastes 11:9-12:1).
In particular, note the statement at the end of verse 9: “But know that for all these things God will bring you into judgment”, it being presupposed here that God is my Creator and yours and that he will therefore demand an accounting for the life he has given us. This is what it means to remember our Creator in the days of our youth, that is, to live as those who know that one day our lives will be assessed by him. This is precisely the emphasis with which the book ends:
The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. For God will bring every deed into judgment, with every secret thing, whether good or evil (Eccl 12:13-14).
While we have youth and vitality in the period before we become very old it is our duty, our responsibility to make sure that all that we do is done as an expression of our fear of God and desire to do his will. The Preacher himself is a source of wisdom and much of that wisdom comes, as indicated in the book itself, from the Preacher’s evaluation of his own life-experience. The wise have much to teach us, though what they have to say will be a shock to the system, like the goad or nails one rams into the rump of a bullock to get it moving. For, as the Preacher surveys all that is done “under the sun”, that is, in this fallen world (see especially 12:7-8), he fails to see people remembering their Creator, living their lives in the knowledge that one day he will assess the value of their lives. It is for this reason that “all is vanity” and it is for this reason that true wisdom is bracing and cutting, because it necessarily confronts the core values we otherwise assume, not only in our own culture but in every culture. Much of this wisdom comes from old warriors who have faithfully lived their lives fearing God and striving to obey him.
Posted May 13, 2010
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