FAITH:
A Charge to Baby Boomers
I am 61 years old—just about the oldest baby boomer (January 11, 1946). Behind me come 78 million boomers, ages 43 to 61. Over 10,000 turn sixty every day. If you read the research, we are a self-centered generation.
* Likes: working from home, anti-aging supplements, climate control
* Dislikes: wrinkles, Millennial sleeping habits, Social Security, insecurity
* Hobbies: low-impact sports, uberparenting, wining and dining
* Hangouts: farmer’s markets, tailgate parties, backyards
* Resources: $2.1 trillion
2 What will it mean to get old to the glory of God as a baby boomer in America?
It will mean a radical break with the mindset of our unbelieving peers. Especially a break with the typical dream of retirement. Ralph Winter is the founder of the
U. S. Center for World Missions and is in his early eighties, traveling, speaking, and writing for the cause of Christ in world missions. He wrote an article titled “The Retirement Booby Trap” almost 25 years ago when he was about 60. In it he said, Most men don’t die of old age, they die of retirement. I read somewhere that half the men retiring in the state of New York die within two years. Save your life and you’ll lose it. Just like other drugs, other psychological addictions, retirement is a virulent disease, not a blessing. . . . Where in the Bible do they see that? Did Moses retire? Did Paul retire? Peter? John? Do military officers retire in the middle of a war?”
3 Millions of Christian men and women are finishing their formal careers in their fifties and sixties, and for most of them there will be a good twenty years before their physical and mental powers fail. What will it mean to live those final years for the glory of God? How will we live them in such a way as to show that Christ is our highest Treasure?
The Perseverance of Charles Simeon
When I got prostate cancer and had surgery last year at age 60, I recalled the experience of Charles Simeon and prayed that his outcome would be true for me. Simeon was the pastor of Trinity Church, Cambridge, two hundred years ago. He learned a very painful lesson about God’s attitude toward his “retirement.” In 1807, after 25 years of ministry at Trinity Church, his health broke when he was 47. He became very weak and had to take an extended leave from his labor.
Handley Moule recounts the fascinating story of what God was doing in Simeon’s life.
The broken condition lasted with variations for thirteen years, till he was just sixty, and then it passed away quite suddenly and without any evident physical cause. He was on his last visit to Scotland . . . in 1819, and found himself, to his great surprise, just as he crossed the border, “almost as perceptibly renewed in strength as the woman was after she had touched the hem of our Lord’s garment.” He says that he had been promising himself, before he began to break down, a very active life up to sixty, and then a Sabbath evening [retirement!]; and that now he seemed to hear his Master saying: “I laid you aside, because you entertained with satisfaction the thought of resting from your labour; but now you have arrived at the very period when you had promised yourself that satisfaction, and have determined instead to spend your strength for me to the latest hour of your life, I have doubled, trebled, quadrupled your strength, that you may execute your desire on a more extended plan.”
4 How many Christians set their sights on a “Sabbath evening” of life—resting, playing, traveling, etc.—the world’s substitute for heaven since the world does not believe that there will be a heaven beyond the grave. The mindset or our peers is that we must reward ourselves now in this life for the long years of our labor. Eternal rest and joy after death is an irrelevant consideration. When you don’t believe in heaven to come and you are not content in the glory of Christ now, you will seek the kind of retirement that the world seeks. But what a strange reward for a Christian to set his sights on! Twenty years of leisure (!) while living in the midst of the Last Days of infinite consequence for millions of people who need Christ. What a tragic way to finish the last mile before entering the presence of the king who finished his last mile so differently!
The Perseverance of J. Oswald Sanders
When I heard J. Oswald Sanders at the Trinity Evangelical Divinity School chapel speaking at the age of 89 say that he had written a book a year for Christ since he was 70, everything in me said, “O God, don’t let me waste my final years! Don’t let me buy the American dream of retirement—month after month of leisure and play and hobbies and putzing around in the garage and rearranging the furniture and golfing and fishing and sitting and watching television. Lord, please have mercy on me. Spare me this curse. ” Making God’s Greatness Known to Future Generations That is my prayer for you as well.
I close with a passion and a promise. The passion is Psalm 71:18—a passion to make the greatness of God known to the generations we are leaving behind: “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.” O that God would give us a passion in our final years to spend ourselves to make him look as great as he really is—to get old to the glory of God.
We Are As Secure As Christ Is Righteous and God Is Just The promise: Isaiah 46:3-4, “[You] have been borne by me from before your birth, carried from the womb; even to your old age I am he, and to gray hairs I will carry you. I have made, and I will bear; I will carry and will save.” Don’t be afraid, Christian. You will persevere. You will make it home. Sooner than you think. Live dangerously for the one who loved you and died for you at age 33. Don’t throw your life away on the American dream of retirement. You are as secure as Christ is righteous and God is just. Don’t settle for anything less than the joyful sorrows of magnifying Christ in the sacrifices of love. And then in the Last Day, you will stand and hear, “Well done good and faithful servant. Enter into the joy of your master.”
FRIENDS:
Father, this subject lies so close to my heart. As you grant me more years, I am more keenly aware of and have the desire to do more for the Kingdom. I pray that you will give us your heart and a servant's hands. May we see your hand stretching as far as the east is from the west. Put your hands and your arms around us and embrace us. May we be yours forever. In Jesus' name, Amen.
DAILY BIBLE CHALLENGE
APRIL 20
Mark 8:1-13; 1 Cor 13; Psalms 89:19-52; Judges 17-18
APRIL 21
Mark 8:14-21; 1 Cor 14:1-25; Psalms 90; Judges 19
FOOD:
Cranberry Onion Roast
Slow Cooker
1 ( 3 to 5 pound) rump roast, trimmed
1 envelope dry onion soup mix
1 can jellied cranberry sauce
2 tablespoons butter, softened
2 tablespoons flour
Rinse rump roast and pat dry. Sprinkle the onion soup mix in the bottom of the crock pot. Place the rump roast on top of the onion soup mix. Spoon the cranberry sauce around and over the roast. Cover and cook on LOW for 10 to 12 hours. Remove roast from crock pot and allow to rest while you thicken the gravy. Turn the crock pot up to HIGH.
Blend the softened butter and flour into a paste and whisk it into the gravy. Cover and cook on HIGH for about 10 minutes, until thick. Slice the roast into 1/4-inch thick slices and serve with the gravy. The slices may be frozen in the gravy in plastic freezer bags.
FUN:
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