Aging
July 1, 1979, 6:04 PM
In a sense I selected this theme this evening, after an interesting discussion with Nancy. It has potential for insights, but also potential for trouble. What will the Spirit say? Will He say things that just sound like me? Will this, in effect, check some of my beliefs against the Spirit? Or has He, as I assume, really led me to the knowledge and understanding that I have now? Perhaps I shall see.
(This 1st paragraph was written by Bob Russell before the Spirit takes the pen)
Yes, o son, you have finally finished your prologue and can let My Spirit speak forth… for I have words to say about aging. Aging, as with many aspects of human life appears to be more than it is. I say this because aging is an apparent part of a process that has an end, but the process, life, really has no end. So aging in any life is simply the latter part of the rhythm that is that life. It is natural, I suppose, that people would not anticipate and not highly value old age if they really expect to die. But I am both saddened and amused when Christians, though, who claim allegiance to Me, have such thoughts. Of these I, rather, would expect this: the knowledge that life goes on after the death of the body makes aging just an interesting, vital part of the journey. If I have challenged you during childhood, youth, and middle age, given you certain advantages and certain burdens, will I not do the same in old age (though the “content” be different)? Old age is a time for remembering, a time for synthesizing and expressing some amount of wisdom. Yet it is also a time, often, of lessened capacities, of strengths and desires ebbing, of pain, and increasing dependence.
This can be devastating if one can truly not accept and appreciate these changes. All of you are aging, and yet, truly, you are just growing and developing. As you are during that period, so must you meet yourself again. For some, aging is pleasant… for others it is not much different from the rest of life. Yet for some it is difficult. Why? Mainly because the younger ages have been too easy. This is potentially you, a successful son. You must be aware. You must appreciate the gifts of life, pleasant and unpleasant. It is accepting aging as the increasingly dominant rhythm.
You know that life goes on, so old age is, finally, a mirage. Others need to know this… need to feel this. When you are old you are not appreciably older than you really are, and not much different from what you will be. Life that is continuous is divided into finite lifetimes to help each of you gain perspective. You are caught up in the mirage of birth, youth, functioning and old age in order that you might feel some of the urgencies stimulated by a relatively short “life”. These bring growth… or they retard growth. Each of you has some choice. I am giving you some insights in order that you might exercise certain understandings gained before… that you might “do it better”.
Yes, what you know is essentially true. If it were not so I should not have led you to this knowing. And, you are right, I did. Certainly. Yet you must still function well in two “camps” – the orthodox Presbyterian and the born-again and again clan. Savor your knowledge and live by it, but flaunt it not. Argue about it not. Present it and back off. Affirm it and then say no more.
Be My servant, as you have been and will be again. Hear My voice as it comes, whenever and wherever. I shall help you be what you must be. I haven’t said it for a time…
Shalom
8:58 PM