Devotional by Dr. Wayne Peterson
July 5, 1998
Aging, maturity, golden age are all terms currently used to refer to that stage of life when stamina declines and life takes on severe limitations. We know we are arriving at that age when our joints are getting stiff with arthritis and our memories begin to lapse.
But these aren't the only signs of aging. You know you are getting old when everyone you meet looks like someone you've met before. Or when you head for the golden oldies counter in the record store to find the fabulous music of the forties that will now enable you to dream again the dreams of youth, and the oldest record you can find is one containing the song, "You Ain't Nothin' but an Ole Hound Dawg."
The poetic literature of the Old Testament in Psalms 90 speaks of life lasting three-score and ten and yet being labor and sorrow (Ps. 90:10), By contrast Psalm 92 declares that those who are righteous--meaning those who take their responsibility in relation to God and people, "shall bear fruit in old age." This is similar to Job 5 that speaks of the aging person as "ripening like a shock of wheat" (v. 26), that is, bearing the fruit that fulfills the earlier stages of life. We can ask, "What makes the difference between aging with labor and sorrow and aging with satisfying fulfillment?" "What is the blessing of old age?"
The Bible speaks of the elderly as embodying the dignity of wisdom. Their rich experience has given them the know-how to unlock the complexities of life. Somehow in this age that worships newness and is drowning in a flood of new knowledge which will soon be replaced by even newer knowledge, wisdom is no longer in demand. As my granddaughter says, "You just don't understand the 90"s!" She makes that statement a finality that suggests, "What else is worth knowing?" Well, so much for the dignity of wisdom.
Erik Erikson, in his study of life stages, characterizes the final stage of development as producing either integrity or despair and disgust. Integrity, he says, is that acceptance of our one and only life, the fruit that is produced when we have adapted ourselves to the triumphs and disappointments of life, when we have been the originator of others and the generator of things and ideas, and when we have accepted the fact that life is our own responsibility. Those who do not bear this fruit, he continues, fall into despair. They do not accept fate as the frame of life, or death as its finite boundary. This despair is often masked by a show of disgust, a chronic critical attitude toward institutions and people, which only signifies their contempt of themselves. I am reminded of Paul's warning that the elderly should not be false accusers (Titus 2:3). We are all familiar with senior citizens who are afflicted with complainitis and seem never to be satisfied with anything. But Erikson, like the Bible, highlights as marks of successful aging the disposition to take responsibility for self and the ability to gather up into an integrated whole the strands of lifelong accomplishments.
The Psalmist prayed in desperation to God, "Do not cast me off in the time of old age; do not forsake me when my strength is spent." God answers, "even to your old age I am he, even when you turn gray I will carry you. I have made, and I will bear; I will carry and will save"(Isa. 46:4). The blessing that God bestows on old age is that of his continuing companionship, to save, to bear, to carry, to nurture integrity. He does not shield us from every hardship, disease or loss, but he is there, suffering with us and offering us a blessing. He provides the means for finding the greatest value even in these circumstances.