Sometimes I get a brain freeze when I try to remember my life in my 20s and 30s (some days it's my forties too!). In those earlier days I could breeze through my classes, party like an animal, drink and dance all night (yes drink!) and still impress my college professors with my subject aptitude and course acumen. No studying (well...a little) applied. I had brain power, fortitude, energy, and blind optimism, but most importantly I thought I had forever. As the great playwright George Bernard Shaw advised...' youth is wasted on the young'. It points to a perspective one comes by much later in life as we approach our autumn days, when so many things are harder to do, impossible to remember and most things too complicated to enjoy. Mr. Shaw advised that young people who complain (about life) are out of place when they do so.
This place I find myself chronologically today represents one of the most important milestones anyone could face. This place I'm finding very comfortable. I've learned to use my journey as lessons to pass on to those only now taking that first monumental step. Young folks are about to begin that volatile experience we call life. And if you’ve lived long enough you know it can get pretty brutal. You’re always tried and tested. We’ve learned to get in the good fight or simply rise above it. People now come to us for mature advice rather than frivolous vexing. They've learned to seek our counsel and trust our testimonies. If you’ve reached this place in life (and its normally via age & experience) then the things that make younger folks scream with rage no longer cause us frustration. We simply smile and repeat the passage from Corinthians when a sultan requests of King Solomon a sentence that would always be true in good times or bad; Solomon responds, "This too will pass away" (contemporary verbiage – “this too shall pass”).
But as I approach my Autumn years (60), I’ve also learned that through all my mountains and valleys, prayers, and plans, when the true spirit of God (mercy, grace, tolerance, love) was omitted, trouble gained entrance, and chaos ensued. I had to learn listen to a divine voice and take counsel with Christ. And so for all you May/December (younger/older) folks that “ride with me” and my thoughts, I hope that with all the questions you will have, every obstacle you will face, and every milestone you can achieve there is a seasoned heart and spirit ready to guide you along your way. We have not walked this journey in vain, we are now what we sought to be - the guides, teachers, and counselors of life and Christ…a very regal place to be. Amen…
So even to old age and gray hairs, O God, do not forsake me, until I proclaim your might to another generation, your power to all those to come
Iron sharpens iron, and one man sharpens another.
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