By Dr. Rich Bimler
Consider this: Perhaps the Lord is allowing us older people to live longer on earth so we can have more opportunities to share our faith in the Lord with more people. Intriguing thought, isn’t it?
Let us take it for granted that this is the Lord’s plan. Let’s help each other “tell the story … of Jesus and His love” (“I Love to Tell the Story,” A. Katherine Hankey, 1866). I sure wish someone would write a hymn about it!
That was the tongue-in-cheek comment I made a few years ago at a pastors’ conference in Michigan. I asked, “Why doesn’t someone write a stanza for older adults about sharing our faith with others?” Here is what Pastor Tim Azzum handed to me after my presentation. (At least he used my presentation time wisely!)
We love to tell the story
That Jesus is the Way.
It gives us all a reason
To live another day.
In every generation,
Each age, its story tells
Of how our God is faithful
To people aging well!
What a great statement of faith for older adults! The Lord gives us added years of life so we can share and celebrate our faith in the Lord Jesus. If we are not telling the story, who is?
Dr. David Walsh of “Mind Positive Parenting” puts it this way: “Whoever tells the stories defines the culture.” Ask yourself, “Who is telling the story to people young and old today, in your neighborhood and community? What is the story they are telling?” We might honestly answer by saying it is the television shows, the commercials, the songs, the movies, the front-page headlines, the political promises. It is all these and more that are telling the stories of what life is all about. Unfortunately, what their life is all about is not what a life in Jesus Christ is all about!
I am not in any way suggesting that we bad-mouth popular stars of today or throw out our flat-screen TVs or banish popular music from our homes, but I am saying that the story we have of Jesus Christ is a story of love and forgiveness and joy because Christ has come for all of us, young and old alike. He has come to us, not by saying “no” to us, despite our sins; rather, He has come to us saying “yes” because of what He has done for us in His death and resurrection. Paul says it well: “As surely as God is faithful, our word to you has not been Yes and No. For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, whom we proclaimed among you, Silvanus and Timothy and I, was not Yes and No, but in Him it is always Yes” (2 Corinthians 1:18-19 ESV).
We are “yes” people in the Lord! Older adults are called to be encouragers, affirmers, and cheerleaders in the Lord! True, young people need to know right from wrong; they need to see their sins and repent of them, just like adults. However, one of the many gifts older adults have as we age is the knowledge and the experience to know that we have a Lord who will never forsake us. We have a Lord who has seen us through all of our “uh-oh” days of pains and problems and pettiness. We know about this Lord who gives to all of us, young and old, His promise of life everlasting.
His story comes alive in us as we tell younger people our story of God’s love and forgiveness for us. His story becomes our story as we model and talk about our memories and remembrances of God working through our sin-filled lives. We tell this story, not because we have to, but because we get to! That is the joy of living a life in the Lord.
Here are some questions to start us thinking more specifically about what story we want to tell and to whom we want to tell it. Add some of your own. Share these with others, especially family members and friends close to you:
1. What is it that I want my family and friends to know about my faith, my core values, and my life’s experiences?
2. For what do I wish to be remembered?
3. What blessings, stories, and traditions do I want to leave with my loved ones?
4. What can I do now to celebrate life in the Lord to enable my family to continue the celebration in their lifetime?
5. What can I do today that will help me to live out the telling of my stories to others?
Celebrate every day by telling the story of Jesus and His love in your own way. He has blessed each of us with faith in Jesus Christ. We get to share it in many ways with younger and older people around us. What a gift! What a joy to shout out and live out our faith. What a God!
Psalm 145:4 (ESV) says it this way: “One generation shall commend Your works to another.” That’s good enough for me.
Dr. Richard Bimler, Ambassador of Health, Hope and Aging (AH-HA), is the Editor-at-Large of Hope-Full Living and the author of “Joyfully Aging: A Christian’s Guide.” This chapter was reprinted with permission.