From fifth grade onward until we graduated from high school, John was a classmate of ours. John had failed 5th grade and had to repeat it. It scarred him a bit. From fifth grade on John used to tell us over and over how good he used to be at some sport, some activity, or some subject. At the time, even to a fifth grader like me, it seemed rather preposterous to be “washed up” at age 11.
Over the years now as I listen to my colleagues, I have noticed a trait similar to my classmate John. It seems in hearing pastors speak the older we get the better we used to be. Is this aging or is it insecurity? Or, perhaps, is it both? Maybe it is neither. Perhaps it is simply wishful thinking…wishing we were once good or better as through trials and experience we have learned how imperfect are we and our work.
All washed up at age 11 is one thing; washed up at nearly 70 quite another. Life does have a way at coming at us again and again. Like the waves of the sea pounding the surf or cliff, taking away a bit of sand or turf a few grains at a time, life has a way of doing the same to us. At times life is energizing, at times draining. Over time it has the ability to shape and change through forces positive and negative.
This is a place for faith to enter. Our Christian faith tells us we are not perfect. Our Christian faith reminds us God and God’s will is not held back by our stumbling and bumbling around. Our very faith has its roots in a dysfunctional family; Jacob stole Esau’s birthright and God went along with it. David was not always the best of role models and Peter wanted nothing to do with Jesus when times were at their most difficult.
If God could work God’s will with characters like these and more, God may be able to get God’s work accomplished through washed up fifth graders and forgetful seniors. Past accomplishments are nice, but hardly sustaining. We are more interested in who we are than who we were. Most people around us are also more interested in who we are currently than who we once were.
The hard fact is that decline is a part of life. We begin our decline in our early twenties. Things like hair follicles, etc. start to change and decline. It may not be obvious for another twenty years or so, but this biological process of aging begins far before we can recognize it. This too is where faith enters. We are defined by neither our decline nor our improvement. We are defined ultimately as we were in baptism by belonging to God and being a child of God. We have importance in God’s plan in all stages of our life. We have value at all ages of life.
Part of what grace does for us is put the past where it belongs: in the past. It’s effects may still matter, but it’s scoresheet in terms of our relationship with God does not. In the resurrection of Jesus, we see God is all about the present with a promise to be our God, the same merciful God, in the future.
Some cultures value older members of their group. They see a certain wisdom gained by experience. Some cultures instead cast aside those who have aged. I have read that at one time Eskimos would place the oldest person on an iceberg, supplying them with some food, and set them adrift every time a child was born. This story makes someone my age perhaps a bit grateful about global warming and the continued and rapid melting of ice!
However, life and the world seem better when all ages dialog and work together. All have a seat at God’s table with something to offer during dinner conversation. Let’s be glad for times and achievements past. Let’s be grateful for times present and continued opportunities to live, serve, love and be loved. Let’s learn some lessons from the past but leave it where it belongs; behind us.