Facing up to ageing

Remember your Creator
in the days of your youth.  Ecclesiastes 12:1

The time to know God is now! What are you waiting for? You have your whole life in front of you. Don’t waste another day living without God’s influence on your life!

Those that believe all God is good for is a ticket to guaranteed life in heaven after death could risk waiting to the last minute before turning to God. Live life as they want to first and then remember God when the end draws near. But that’s missing the whole point. Life with God in it is better. Infinitely better. Every day without practising God’s presence is a wasted opportunity.

Because maybe people are fooled into thinking that it somehow gets easier to follow God when you’re older. When you’ve done all your living, had all your excitement and are ready to settle down. There’s nothing settled about following God – it’s the biggest adventure of all. And as you get older, maybe it gets harder to show enthusiasm, to commit to God’s radical love, to be prepared to stand up and shout about injustice, to take a leap of faith…

Life itself certainly gets harder, that’s for sure. In Ecclesiastes 12:1-8, the writer describes the ageing process in graphic detail –

Remember your Creator
in the days of your youth,
before the days of trouble come
and the years approach when you will say,
‘I find no pleasure in them’–

It gets harder to enjoy life as you get older – physically, your body is not what it was and your senses are not what they were and some of the pleasure in life starts to drain away…

before the sun and the light
and the moon and the stars grow dark,
and the clouds return after the rain;

The world seems to close in around you and everything becomes more blurred. Sight begins to fail and day melts into night and night into day.

when the keepers of the house tremble,
and the strong men stoop,
when the grinders cease because they are few,
and those looking through the windows grow dim;

Strength starts to fail. It’s harder to work. We have less energy. It’s harder to do a good job. Harder to stand up straight even. We can’t do what we used to do and we struggle to find a way to come to terms with that.

when the doors to the street are closed
and the sound of grinding fades;
when people rise up at the sound of birds,
but all their songs grow faint;

We can’t hear as well as we used to. We become cut off from the world. We can’t sleep properly either. We start to wake far too early.

when people are afraid of heights
and of dangers in the streets;
when the almond tree blossoms
and the grasshopper drags itself along
and desire no longer is stirred.
Then people go to their eternal home
and mourners go about the streets.

And this draining of strength and energy makes us more vulnerable, more anxious. We won’t take on new things. We see danger at every corner. We lose sight of all that is good in the world – all that points us to God. Our friends all begin to die one by one and every funeral reminds us that it might be our turn next.

Remember him – before the silver cord is severed,
and the golden bowl is broken;
before the pitcher is shattered at the spring,
and the wheel broken at the well,

Remember God when you still have the strength to enjoy Him. Before your body is broken. Before your memory starts to crumble. Before all that you felt was important becomes worthless and useless.

and the dust returns to the ground it came from,
and the spirit returns to God who gave it.

Remember God before you die. Before it really is too late.

‘Meaningless! Meaningless!’ says the Teacher.
‘Everything is meaningless!’

It does feel that way, doesn’t it? Ageing feels like a miserable process. And without God, it is. Let’s face it, even with God, ageing can be pretty frustrating and scary and lonely. We only begin to understand how ageing feels when it happens to us, of course. It’s a shame we can’t get more glimpses of it earlier, so that we would take better care of those who are struggling with ageing around us. The way we treat the elderly in this country is appalling in general. We have no time for them. We’re too busy. We make no time for them. When they have no contribution to society any more, we marginalise them and make them feel useless. Whatever you’ve done in life must feel pretty meaningless, when you are alone day after day with nothing really to live for.

So is it all meaningless?

No. God brings meaning and significance to the everyday. He makes what we do and say count for something. There is only any meaning to this life in the context of eternity, in that God sets eternity in our hearts and our actions contribute to His will being done and His kingdom coming on earth as it is in heaven…

TO DO: Stop. And think. Really think. Reflect on what it must be like to age, using this passage as a starting place. Consider how at times, you may ignore or neglect an older person that you encounter. Commit to at least acknowledging older people and really paying full attention when they speak to you – that could cause a revolution in itself!