Living now — living forever ............. Parables 736

October 30, 2001

A Roman scholar named Cato started to study Greek when he was over eighty years old. Someone asked why he tackled such a difficult topic at his age. He replied, “It is the earliest age I have left.”

Cato was not the last of the spunky senior citizens. I attended a party for a woman celebrating her 105th birthday. With a twinkle in her eye, she supplied her own entertainment. She breezed through every song she knew on her harmonica and tossed out one-liners in between. She also took requests and if she didn’t know the song, she picked it up after someone hummed a few bars. This woman has Alzheimer’s disease and cannot remember what day it is—but she retains her storehouse of favorites and her huge sense of humor.

Another acquaintance is in his eighties. He rides his bicycle and participates in bicycle marathons, riding hundreds of kilometers in a summer. He too has a wonderful sense of humor.

A woman in our church is over ninety and just retired from work. My uncle is in his early eighties and just went back to work. Both walk tall and have a twinkle in their eyes.

These seniors value life and yet refuse to hoard it up for themselves. Their remaining years are dedicated to learning, growing, keeping active and blessing others. For them, life is lived to the full, much to the pleasure of those who know them.

While time may be short, for them it is not an issue. They have come to grips with Solomon’s words: “There is a season for everything: a time to be born and a time to die.” They realize time is a precious gift from God but are not anxious about it’s passing.

The Bible also says to “redeem the time for the days are evil.” Paul explains further: “The time is short . . . buy something as if it were not yours to keep . . . use the things of the world, as if not engrossed in them. For this world in its present form is passing away.”

The Bible tells us to utilize whatever things of the world we need but not clutch them to ourselves. God gave us “all things” to use and even enjoy, but we are not to make ‘things’ our chief concern. After all, they will pass away.

That statement is in contrast to most warnings about materialism and worldliness. Preachers and philosophers say, “You cannot take it with you” and focus on the fact that we will pass away. But instead, Paul says ‘things’ will pass away.

Even if we could take our stuff with us, we need to remember it is still temporary. ‘Things’ are not designed for eternity; they rot, rust, or fall apart.

Even our bodies age and die too, but God plans new bodies for His people, bodies that are “incorruptible.” He says, “mortals will put on immortality” and “death is swallowed up in victory.” Only people are designed to live forever. That does not happen to our stuff.

Most of my senior friends realize and live by the truth found in 2 Corinthians 4: “Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.”

For them, that eternal hope not only conquers death, it also changes life. It gives music to an aged woman who has forgotten everything else, mobility to an older man who wants to keep active, and meaningful work to two folks who are long past ‘normal’ retirement age.

This hope of eternal glory is available but we need to unclench our fists. We will last forever, but our stuff is doomed.