Something Went Wrong

By John Stallings

On Nov. 18, 1995, Itzhak Perlman, the violinist came on stage to give a concert at Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center in New York City.


People who’ve been to a Perlman concert  know that getting on stage is no small achievement for him. He was stricken as a child with polio & so he has braces on both legs & walks with the aid of two crutches. To see him walk across the stage one step at a time, painfully & slowly is an unforgettable sight.

Then he sits down, slowly, puts his crutches on the floor, undoes the clasps on his legs, tucks one foot back & extends the other foot forward. Then he bends down & picks up the violin, puts it under his chin, nods to the conductor & proceeds to play.

By now the audience is used to his ritual. They sit quietly as he makes his way across the stage to his chair. They wait until he’s ready to play.

But this time, something went wrong. Just as he finished the first few bars, one of his strings on his violin broke. You could hear it snap- it went off like gunfire across the room. There was no mistaking what that sound meant. People who were there that night said, “We figured he’d have to get up, put on the clasps again, pick up the crutches & limp his way off stage-to either find another violin or else find another string for this one."

But he didn’t. Instead he waited a moment closed his eyes & then signaled the conductor to start again. The orchestra began & he played from where he’d left off. He played with such passion & purity as they had never heard before. Of course anyone  "knows" it’s impossible to play a symphonic work with just three strings. But that that night Itzhak Perlman refused to know that. Folk could see him modulating, changing, and recomposing the piece in his head.

When he finished there was an awesome silence in the room. Then there was an extraordinary outburst of applause from every corner of the room. And then the people rose & cheered. He smiled, wiped the sweat from his brow, raised his bow to quiet the crowd, & then he said not boastfully, but in a quiet , pensive reverent tone, “You know, sometimes it’s the artist’s task to find out how much music you can still make with what you have left.”

What a powerful line that is.

VERY OFTEN IN THIS FAST-PACED WORLD IN THE MIDDLE OF AN ALL-OUT EFFORT ON OUR PART, SOMETHING GOES WRONG.

Maybe it’s our health, or a relationship or a financial setback. Sometimes it seems that our whole world has come crashing down on us. Whatever has happened, we must carry on in spite of it to make the best music possible.

Sometimes we are tempted to think if we are good enough, pray enough, pure-minded enough & giving enough we will somehow escape trouble. Perfection, even if we could achieve it won’t guarantee trouble won’t come knocking at our door.

I remember a story my parents told me about their evangelistic endeavors when they first started in ministry. I had two sisters, Barbara & Marveline, & I was the only one too young to remember those days. My father bought a small Gospel tent & was traveling the south with it. We were staying in an old house out in the country that had been loaned to my parents for the duration of the series of meetings in La Grange, Georgia. One night my mother was awakened in her sleep & impressed to move the pallet where I was sleeping from  close proximity to an open window. At almost the instant she moved me a brick sailed through the window & landed where my head had been. Though that qualified as a small miracle, it was the late thirties & my parents survived on miracles.

The revival in that small Georgia town was going well; overflow crowds & many being saved. The revival was extended several times & stretched into weeks. Then one night something went wrong. My oldest sister Marveline, who had been fighting kidney disease, came down with a serious kidney infection & to make a long story short, she died in that town. Our little family had to lay her in a grave in LaGrange, Ga. To re-cap, my oldest sister died & was buried in a small town while her parents were conducting perhaps the greatest spiritual awakening the city had ever seen.

God has never explained that to me & I don’t believe He ever explained it to my parents. Being human, even though we are limited in our ability to grasp eternal realities, we expect God to explain His reasons to us. Trouble will come our way there’s no doubt about that, & sooner or later something in our lives will go wrong. The question is how will we respond to it when it comes? My mom, who was very young herself, responded by vowing to never put her foot inside another church as long as she lived. She was on a “slow burn” with a God who would take her beloved child while her whole family was doing all they knew to follow His leading.

Suffice to say all that changed a year later while attending a funeral of a friend. Mom heard the speaker give an illustration of a mother sheep that refused to cross a raging stream. Her baby lamb had to be transported to the other side of the stream, making the mother sheep willing to risk her life to be with her little one. Once this revelation came to mom; that she had a daughter waiting for her on the other side, she spent the rest of her life in the service of the Lord.

Jeremiah went to the potter’s house in 18:1-11 & gets an illustration for his next sermon to Israel. As he observed the potter, he notes that as the clay is being fashioned on the potter’s wheel, something went wrong. The potter sees an imperfection in his creation & just stops. He mars the clay & starts over. Jeremiah sees something besides clay in this illustration & proceeds to use it as a parallel to Israel & her rebellion & imperfections. But God isn’t through with Israel & will continue to mold & work with them.

Jeremiah’s story is reminiscent of The Garden of Eden when God stooped down, got some clay & fashioned man with His own hands. But you don’t need me to remind you that in that beautiful lush garden where everything was just perfect, something went wrong. Adam & Eve were tempted by Satan & broke the command of God not to eat of one tree & it resulted in Man being banished from the Garden. We call that the “fall.” Just like the potter, God wasn’t so out-done that He had to throw man (the clay) away. No, he kept a hands-on relationship with man. He made them clothes out of animal skins, a foreshadowing of what would come later at Calvary when His Son would be offered as the final sacrifice for mans sin & transgression. God seems to be at His best when something goes wrong.

“Something went wrong!”

This is the story of the history of God’s people & it will doubtless be the story of our lives. We try so hard. We have all our “ducks in a row” but in spite of all our efforts to the contrary, something inexplicably goes wrong. We ask “why is this happening?” “Where is God in all this?” “Why doesn’t He step in & do something?” Some people even put this exceedingly unhealthy spin on it, “How could God do this to me?” Another unhealthy response is to blame others when things go wrong instead of looking inward & upward. We find ourselves up to our ears in the proverbial Alligators & realize too late that we should have drained the swamp.

JOB

Job was a real man who lived in the land of Uz. His problems are so many its hard to select a few verses that share all of them. Job is one of the hero’s of the Bible. He was rich. He had ten children. He was upright before the Lord. Each morning he would make a sacrifice for each of his ten children in case they had sinned. Somewhat like a movie, there are two stories going on at the same time. One is the story of Job & his problems. The other is the story between God & Satan.

We are aware of both. Job was not. One day Satan shows up when the angels are before God. Imagine thousands & thousands of angels have gathered in the presence of God Himself to report on their activities. This is mind-numbing. All of creation is being held accountable to God. In this scene, Satan-fallen-rebellious-Satan-is permitted-is also allowed to come into God’s presence. Hold on to this truth; ---during the trials & tribulations of our lives, always there are dimensions that we don’t see. There’s always more than meets the eye & we need to stay keenly aware of this fact.

God says to Satan, have you ever considered my servant Job? There is no one on earth like him. He is blameless & upright, a man who fears God & shuns evil. God brags about Job. Does God ever brag about us? Remember, Job isn’t aware of this conservation. We are aware of why Job is hurting, but Job is not.

Then Satan speaks. He says, “Of course he serves you, you protect him.” So God allows Satan to harm what Job has but not Job personally. To give you an idea of God’s supremacy to Satan; Osama bin Laden didn’t come to President Bush & ask for permission to fly planes into the World Trade Center. No enemy ever asks for permission to attack. And yet here is Satan asking God for permission to attack Job. There can be no doubt that Satan did the dirty work but God allowed it. Then something goes wrong! Job's trouble starts.

One day a messenger comes & tells him that “his oxen & donkeys have been carried off, all his servants are dead & I alone am left to tell you.” While he was speaking another servant came & reported that fire from the sky has burned up all the sheep & servants & I alone am left alive to tell you.” Then Job is advised that all of his ten children are dead, killed in a house collapse. Job tears his robes, shaves his head & falls to the ground in worship & declares,

“Naked came I from my mother’s womb & naked will I depart. The Lord gave & the Lord has taken away, may the name of the Lord be praised.” Job 1:21. Job still doesn’t say anything foolish. What a man!

Satan has failed. So he goes to God again & says, “Job hasn’t failed because you haven’t touched him personally. You’ve only touched his possessions & children.” Then Satan is given permission to hurt Job but not take his life. Isn’t it a comfort to know that God sets the limits on how much we can be troubled?

The Apostle Paul writes in 1 Cor.10:13, God is faithful who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you can bear, but will with the temptation provide the way of escape also, so that you will be able to endure it.

When we’re hanging on by a thread we need to be reminded that God always has His protecting hands around us. He knows what we can bear. I once heard country singer Loretta Lynn say in an interview—“They say God won’t put more on you than you can stand, but it’s not true.” Well, Loretta’s wrong about that. God isn’t going to allow us to be hurt & wronged so bad that our trust in Him will be destroyed. Here’s a promise you can hang your hat on; God sets the boundaries.


But then something else goes wrong! Job develops sores over his entire body. Next we see him scraping pieces of broken pottery over his body with his wife telling him to curse God & die.

There sure isn’t any encouragement at home.

But let’s not be too hard on Mrs. Job. We need to cut her a little slack. She’s been through a lot. Overnight she’s gone from being the wife of one of the most respected men in the east to a homeless outcast. Like Job, she’s lost everything, including her ten children. Now her once proud husband is sitting in the street suffering from a debilitating disease. His name has become synonymous with tragedy. The town looks at him with disgust. So Mrs. Job has been through a lot.

The problem with Mrs. Job is that she has caved into Satan’s attack. She no longer looks at God as good, she now sees Him as detached & uncaring. The one person Job should have been able to look to for comfort & support now becomes a tool in Satan’s hand. She becomes a part of Job’s humiliation-his test.

She rips into Job’s heart. Her advice is assisted suicide. “Forget your faith in this uncaring God-get Him really ticked off & God will kill you.” But Job says to her, -you speak as one of the foolish women speaks. Job refuses to buy it & holds onto His faith in God.

Seemingly everything goes wrong; But why?

Now Jobs friends Eliphaz, Bildad & Zopharare are going to “help.” His wife wasn’t any help; maybe his friends can bring a little comfort. They sit with Job for a week in silence. When God isn’t forthcoming with an answer, his friends start to speak up. In short, they feel Job has sinned. There is an obvious dark side to his personality. He has brought on himself the torture he’s under. What “brilliant observations” they share with Job. It’s true that sin brings punishment however righteous people experience pain as well. It’s so easy to be simplistic & assume that a hurting person has caused their own pain. Of course we don’t appreciate this logic applied to us.

If you listen to some of the modern day ministers you’d get the idea that if you’re not healthy & wealthy something’s wrong with your faith. Maybe we should ask the early Christians who were eaten by lions about pain & suffering. Do you think it was because they didn’t know how to trust God or maybe there was sin in their lives? Hebrews 11:38 says “The world wasn’t worthy of these martyred Christians.

We can read the story of Job so easily. We are aware of the conversation between God & Satan, this helps with the why. Job was able to witness to the devil himself about the boundless, sustaining grace of God. We also know the end of the story about the restoration of his possessions & having ten new children. Still we know he suffered. His wife didn’t help. His friends didn’t help. What helped Job?

For one thing Job went to the right place with his questions; he went to God. Job didn’t allow his pain to push him from God. When something goes wrong, some people will run from God, avoiding the church & God’s people. Job listened to God. God never told him about the conversation with Satan, & He never gives an explanation, but only asks Job to trust Him. Job got that lesson for he said -Though he slay me yet will I trust Him. Job 13:15. God did however have quiet a conversation with Job. If you haven’t read chapters 38-41 of Job lately, reread them. They’re amazing. God’s Word doesn’t answer all our questions but it does tell us all God wants us to know.

Do you remember how it all ends up? In the end God blesses Job’s socks off. He lives to 140 years with blessings that went way beyond what was taken away. ----Job 41:17 says, -- Job died an old man & full of days.

SOMETHING WENT WRONG--- IN NAZARETH

I can’t imagine my friends & loved ones rejecting me can you? I’m sure we’d be shattered.

But that’s precisely what happened to Jesus. Mark 6:1-6 is one of the most awesome passages in Holy Writ. Jesus returned to His home town & the first day He arrived something went wrong. He friends & neighbors rejected Him. He had been enormously successful since He left his hometown. He had healed & restored a mentally ill man, a feverish old woman, a paralytic, a woman with a twelve year hemorrhage, & a dead little girl. He had reached across the boundaries & barriers of His society & welcomed the unwelcome, touched the untouchables, & ate with sinners. He had painted a picture of the Kingdom of God.

So everywhere He went there were huge crowds pressing into Him. People were bringing the sick & elderly to Him. All day long & into the evening they came, even following along the lake shore as He & His friends sailed from place to place in Peter’s boat. Everyone knew about Him, was talking about Him & had an opinion about Him.

And now for the first time since He left—since the day He walked away from the carpenters shop to be baptized by His cousin John—now for the first time Jesus came home to Nazareth. His parents’ village, where Mary had been born & where Joseph had been a carpenter. It’s a small town & everyone had heard the rumors about Him. They were His neighbors & watched Him as he grew up. These are the people Jesus met when He joined His friends in the old synagogue on the first Sabbath of His homecoming.

Was he proud to be there? I think so. Was he a little nervous when they asked Him to read & interpret? This was a tense, homecoming moment. When Jesus was handed the scroll to read, Mark tells us that the people asked several sarcastic questions. Where did this young man get all this? Is this not the carpenter’s son, the son of Mary? Usually men were known as their fathers son’s so when they referred to Jesus as “Mary’s son” it was the same as what we would call a “bastard.”

These people took big-time offense at Jesus. Jesus responded not by being argumentative but by stating the obvious—“Prophets aren’t honored in their own hometowns.” Mark cuts-to-the-chase & tells us He could do no great works there. Nothing changed in that village. Nothing new emerged. There was no revival. Life quickly returned to normal; and why not? They had rejected Jesus.

And now what I think is one of the saddest verses in the New Testament—He went about the villages teaching. That is, He left His own home town & never returned.

Jesus set the example here for the way we should act when it’s people who do us wrong. Being human we might be tempted to try to even the score. As we’ve seen Jesus never did that. We must remember that God is watching. He has known about the injustice all along so never run ahead of Him with your own solutions. If you have tried to do the right thing time & again, God is aware of that fact. What goes around comes around. We’ve all seen people try to hurt others & in the end they themselves get hurt.  God is patient, so we must be patient.

But when God’s patience has run out, & we never know when that’s going to happen, when God sees that people have hurt us & should be forthcoming with an apology but they refuse to “get it,” He moves in & does what only God can do in a way only God can do it. When God starts moving it’s a fearful thing to behold & you’ll be glad you did right when things start to happen. We should let our hurts go & God will deal with them for us.

……Weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning. -Psalm 30:5

Don’t panic when something snaps in your life. Play on like Perlman. Turn to God in your time of despair.

Many are the afflictions of the righteous: but the Lord delivers him out of them all. -Psalm 34:19

God is our refuge & strength: a very present help in time of need.- Psalm 46:1


Blessings,


John

Grumpy Old Men

By John Stallings

…Don’t turn me out to pasture when I’m old, or put me on the shelf when I can’t pull my weight…… Psalm 71:9-The Message

Two elderly men had been friends all their lives. Over the years they’d shared all kinds of activities & adventures & were actually closer than brothers.

One day they were sitting opposite each other at a card table when one looked at the other & said, “Now don’t get mad with me. I know we’ve been friends for over 80 years but I just can’t remember your name. I’ve thought & thought about it but your name has slipped my mind. Can you please tell me what it is?”

The other man sat & glared at him. For at least 3 minutes he just stared & glared back at his old friend. Finally when it looked like he wouldn’t speak at all he asked, “How soon do you need to know?”

I met an old gentleman in his 90’s at the Mall where I often walk. As we walked along he began to tell me about the new hearing aide he’d just purchased. He raved about how good this hearing aide was & finally bragged it was the absolute best that could be purchased anywhere in the world. I knew he was a very wealthy man & could certainly afford the best of everything. Finally I asked him “What kind is it?” He answered, “Eleven-thirty.”

Another older gentleman had a serious hearing problem for a number of years. Finally he went to the doctor & was fitted for a set of hearing aides that allowed him to hear well. About a month later he went back to the doctor for another check-up & the doctor said, “Your hearing is almost perfect. Your family must be pleased that you can hear so well.” The gentleman replied, “ Oh, I tell them my hearing aides don’t work & I can’t hear a thing. I just sit around & listen to the conversation. I’ve changed my Will three times.”

Nowadays we hear the concept of aging expressed in many different ways. We talk about, “The Senior Years,” and, “The Golden Years.” I like one I recently heard about where the senior club in a church is called The J.O.Y Club, for older folk, or the “Just Older Youths” club.

Comedian George Burns had a definition of old age. He said, “Old age is when you don’t have to own antiques to sit down on something that’s over 80.”

People are living longer today. The life expectancy in 1900 was 49 years. In 1999, the average life expectancy was 76 years. In 2015, a 76 year old male has a life expectancy of slightly more than ten more years.76 year old females have approx. twelve more years. Since more people are alive today in their 80’s & 90’s or even 100 years old, some make the distinction between the “young-old” for those between 60-75 while the “old-old” are 75 plus. I’m not saying I agree with this, I’m just passing it on.

In our society, youthfulness is held up as an ideal while in other cultures; old age is accepted as a natural part of the life cycle. We do all we can to stay young & the cosmetic industry is booming because of it. In many cultures older people are revered & looked on as a source of wisdom while in ours, the elderly are sometimes just tolerated or even scorned.

One reason for this is the information explosion. In years past young people learned from the older folk how to do things, now with the booming technology, it’s grandpa going to his grandchild to learn how to operate a computer. This is all part of the big picture of being an older person in the United States today.

LOSS OF HEALTH

As we get older the body begins to wear out & we have aches & pains we never had before. Many older people are faced with chronic illness or physical limitations.

 The only real question I have about aging is what in the world happens at night? When I go to bed I’m walking perfectly, not an ache or pain on the horizon. But too often when I get up, I feel like someone worked me over with a two-by-four during the night. And I have a Sleep Number bed. I guess you just have to walk it off. Honestly, when you get a little age on you, you can get hurt just picking up the phone.

Also with age, our memory may start to go. As a matter of fact I was going to put another story in right here but I forgot it.

Many in their older years lose a spouse & this means adjusting to a whole different life without husband or wife. We may start to lose many of our friends. I remember how one of my grandmothers used to remark how strange it felt to lose so many of her friends.

Also, older folk may lose their independence & we can imagine the loss of self-esteem associated with that. There can also be the loss of one’s home because of lack of ability to maintain it & also a reduction in financial resources. All these losses can trigger sadness & depression in the elderly.

Of course there are blessings & benefits associated with the senior years. We might have more free time to travel & do things we never had time to do when we were employed or raising our children. Also enjoying grandchildren or younger children in our family can add a joyful dimension to this stage of life.

Older people are living healthier more active lives. In reality a 65 year old man has on average an estimated life expectancy of over 15 years while a woman that age has a life expectancy of 20.5 years. I find it interesting that old age is a stage of life that now lasts almost as long as youth. It seems that age 40 is the old-age of youth while age 50 is the youth of old age. There, didn’t that make your day?

A FEW FACTS ABOUT OLDER PEOPLE

1. Senior adults have over $1.6 trillion in spending power. [I couldn't help but think about Austin Powers when I wrote trillion.] That’s nearly twice the U.S average.
2. They buy 41% of all new cars.
3. They purchase 25% of all toys—think grand kids.
4. Account for 80% of all luxury travel.
5. Spend $7 Billion online annually.
6. Spend more time online than teenagers, and
7. Own more than three-fourths of the nation’s wealth.

The “golden years” aren’t called golden for nothing.

PSALM 71 IS A PRAYER WRITTEN BY AN ELDERLY MAN

The whole Psalm is the prayer of an aged man of faith who has lived an honorable life & now seeks God’s deliverance from enemies, sickness & shame.

It begins:

In you O Lord I take refuge; let me never be put to shame. In your righteousness deliver me & rescue me; incline your ear to me & save me. Be to me a rock of refuge a strong fortress, to save me for you are my rock & my fortress. Rescue me O my God from the hand of the wicked, from the grasp of the unjust & cruel.[Psalm 71:1-4]

He goes on to pray,

Do not cast me off in the time of old age; do not forsake me when my strength is spent. [vr.9]. 

Whatever we face in our senior years whether fears, losses, loneliness—God will not forsake us! The writer of this psalm knows God as his rock & fortress: 

Be to me a rock of refuge, a strong fortress, to save me. [vr.3]

Prayer can & should be the way we get in touch with the power to sustain us.

I think we can say that many old people are grumpy but all of them aren’t; this psalmist certainly isn’t grumpy. Hollywood even made the movie-GRUMPY OLD MEN. Of course there are lots of young grumps & middle-aged grumps also. We can spend our years complaining, or bitter, or nit-picking. We can have a negative attitude or we can praise the Lord.

HERE ARE TEN ATTITUDES TO HELP US AS WE GROW OLDER

 1. Don’t think of yourself as old, think of yourself as experienced.Job said;  

-Is not wisdom found among the aged? Does not long life bring understanding?-Job 12:12

We can tell if we’re getting old if;

We feel old,
We often say, “I’m too old to do that.”
We feel the future holds no promise.
We’d rather talk than listen.
We long for the good old days. [I don’t know about you but the good old days nearly killed me.]

Proverbs 23:22 says,--Listen to your father who gave you life, & do not despise your mother when she is old.This speaks of the wisdom & understanding of older parents.

When I was pre-teen, people would often comment about how smart I was. I knew they were wrong but didn’t really want to argue with them. Teachers would say what potential I had & would remark to my parents what a smart boy they raised. Of course they’d always add, “If Johnny would only apply himself...”

Not to be falsely humble, but I knew I wasn’t as smart as many of my schoolmates because I had the evidence & I often wondered how I could have so many people fooled. Then I figured it out; I used bigger words than most kids my age. The reason for that was, I had two parents that were preachers, [my father matriculated Mercer University in Macon Georgia] & they used big words a lot. Without really trying, just listening, I picked up their words & that made me sound smart. Occasionally I’d even know the actual meaning of a big word I was using.

This is the reason other cultures in the Far East like Japan, honor & revere their parents & grandparents & keep them as close as they can; they know wisdom resides in them. They know the elderly have forgotten more than they’ve yet learned. The trick is not to forget too much.

2. Stay engaged in meaningful activities.

If there is a “youth potion,” it’s meaningful work. It can be continued work in the “Market Place” or some other meaningful duty such as volunteerism, nonetheless work.

I was amused at Rush Limbaugh this week [Rush is usually right on target] when he dissed eating healthy and exercising because Jack Lalanne did that and he died. Hello! Rush my man, Lalanne died at ninety-six. While he was in his nineties, Lalanne when he took a notion would swim & pull a barge across San Francisco bay with a leather strap between his teeth, which I’m sure weren’t false. Jack did nothing because he had to but because he knew it kept him alive. Moreover, as far as I know he didn’t spend his last years in a wheel-chair or on a walker and succumbed to what doctors call “the old persons friend,” pneumonia.

One of my grandmothers ran a boarding house almost until she went to heaven & was in her late eighties when she passed. I know I’ve shared this before but her sense of humor was in tact on her death bed. Amongst her last words were; “In just a moment an elevator is going to come down to the foot of my bed, open up, & two angels are going to get out & escort me onto it. They’re going to push the up button & we’re going to heaven.” Then with a twinkle in her eyes she remarked, “I sure hope they don’t push the wrong button.”

Things like skill sharing, delivering meals-on-wheels, visiting shut-ins, & hospital visitation & Sunday school teaching are all things elderly folk can be involved in.

3. Continue to grow & look ahead.

Remember Caleb, the 85 year old man in Joshua 12:13 who asked; Give me this mountain? At that advanced age he still knew exactly what he wanted.

When the well-known Christian industrialist R.G Le Tourneau was asked to name the best ten years of his very productive life, his answer was always the same; “The next ten.”

Psalm 92:12-14 says, --But the godly shall flourish…even in old age they shall produce fruit & be vital & green.Paul the Apostle noted that even though the outward man grows weak, the inner man can be renewed day by day.

4. Be courageous

Courage is very importance in this process.

The other day I heard a wise lady speaking on the radio about the present fiscal crisis we’re going through in America. She was scolding the purveyors of doom about the economy & she remarked, “You know, often times the patient is killed, not by their disease but by fear.”

I couldn’t agree more. Although she was speaking first & foremost about the economy, certainly fear has killed more people than cancer has ever killed.

There is nothing so powerful in old age or for that matter, any age, than a deep abiding faith in God. When we are weak he is strong. Praise His name!

Joshua 1:9 says,--Have I not commanded you? Be strong & of good courage; do not be afraid, nor be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go. 

5. Understand the power of positive life patterns.

I had several uncles who were very successful in the Insurance business. I’ll never forget the advice one of them gave me when I was in my early twenties. He said, “The young John has got to put some money in the old John’s pocket.” In other words, if the young John spends all he has & arrives in his sunset year’s dead broke; the old John is going to be broke.

The same is true in matters of the disposition. I can look at some younger people & just know they’ll have a hard time growing older. They are fractious & ungracious, without a modicum of the ability to laugh off things they can’t change. Getting older for them will be a horrible experience. Many of them do nothing to cultivate friendships & even alienate their own families.

Rarely do we find “Grumpy old men” who weren't grumpy young men. Conversely, rarely do we find “dear sweet old ladies” who were not “dear sweet young ladies.” The attitudes & habits we develop as we grow tend to stay with us & become all the more embedded as we age.

6. Develop a sense of humor.

Good humor is the secret to good aging. If you can’t think of anything to smile about let me help you. Here are a few benefits of growing old;

# Kidnappers aren’t very interested in you.
# In a hostage situation you’re likely to be released first.
# No one expects you to run into a burning building.
# You’ve probably sown all the wild oats you’re going to sow.
# There’s very little to learn the hard way.
# You’re too old to die young.
# When you have a party the neighbors never realize it.
# You can compare notes when talking about operations.
# You have better weather forecasters in your joints than the national Weather Service.
# Your secrets are safe with your friends because they can’t remember them either.

An elderly couple had dinner at another couple’s house. The wives left the table after eating & the husbands were talking. One said, “Last night we had a meal at a great restaurant & I can highly recommend it.” The other man said, “What was the name of the restaurant?” The first man thought & thought & finally said, “What’s the name of the flower you give to someone you love? You know…the one that’s red & has thorns?” “Do you mean rose?”
Yes,” the man replied. He turned toward the kitchen & yelled, “Rose, what’s the name of the restaurant we went to last night?”

7. See the older years as rich, full, productive years.

# Two-thirds of the worlds most creative people are over 60.
# More than two-thirds of the men & women in medicine, education, science, government & the arts are over 60.
# Roughly 10% of those attending college are over 50.
# Strom Thurmond was a U.S Senator at his death at 100.
# David Ray of Franklin TN. learned to read at 99.
# Paul Spangler completed his 14th marathon at age 92.
# Michelangelo painted the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel lying on his back on a scaffold when he was almost 90.
#At 91, Hulda Crooks climbed Mount Whitney the highest mountain in the Continental United States.
# Will Durant finished his five-volume History of Civilization at age 89.
# Alfred Lord Tennyson wrote “Crossing the bar” at 83.
# Ben Franklin was still working in the government at 78 & wrote his autobiography when he was 80.
# John Glenn went into space aboard the space shuttle when he was 77.

Many of those who led the Kingdom of God forward in Scripture were older people;

# Noah
# Abraham & Sarah
# Caleb
# Job
# Anna
# The Apostle Paul

8. Never quit.

We never know when the Lord will call us home. All of us know someone who was supposed to die & lived on well past that date. I’ve learned not to bury people until they’re dead & ready to be buried. God loves to pull surprises & He does so regularly.

Keep in mind that no matter your age you may wind up living 10 or 15 more years, who knows. In fact some people actually live a quarter of their life after retirement. Wouldn’t it be a shame, maybe even a sin if we wasted 25% of our lives here on earth sitting on our differential?

Several years ago the Associated Press ran the story of Andre Raffray. Thirty years prior to that time at the age of 47 he worked out a real estate deal with Jeanne Calment age 90. He would pay her $500 each month until her death, in order to secure ownership of her apartment in Arles France. She could continue to live in her house until she passed away, however when she eventually did die the apartment would then belong to Raffray.

Unfortunately for Raffray, Jeanne Calment became the world’s oldest person. At the time the AP published this account Calment was still alive at the age of 120. She outlived Raffray who died in December 1995 at the age of 77. He paid $184,000 for an apartment he never lived in. According to the contract, Raffray’s survivors had to continue payment until Mrs. Calment’s death. Here’s a very good piece of wisdom; retire if you must, just keep on living.

9. Share your faith in Jesus Christ.

Nothing is as powerful as an older person who's successfully walked the road of faith through the trials of life.

I’m sure I’ll have little to leave to my children but I can leave them a good name, a name that bears no reproach. I would want them to know that I prayed regularly for them & be assured of my love for them. I would also want to leave them a strong witness of my faith in God.


10. Be ready for death.

By the way, you might find it interesting to know that the health club memberships for those over 65 & older are up nearly 150% in recent years. Older folk are taking better care of themselves & it’s paying off in longer life spans.

Nevertheless, the Bible says death will eventually come to us all or Christ will come for us by way of the rapture. You may not believe in rapture, or catching away of the saints, but if you’re saved, you’ll be leaving anyway.

Paul once called himself “Paul the aged.” It was as an old man that he wrote, “To live is Christ, and to die is gain.He also made it clear that though he was willing to continue living in this life, he much preferred going home to be with the Lord. God wants us to live life to the full but He also wants us to live eternity to the full as well. He not only wants us to grow old, he wants us to grow old in the Lord.

If you haven’t spent time in Psalm 71, I urge you to go back & read it for it’s a template for aging. The Psalm ends with a prayer for revival. Life for the aged man now has only one meaning & that’s to bring praise to God & extol His mighty works.

Growing old doesn't guarantee we make & keep friends, nor that there won’t be times when we feel very much alone. But the writer of this Psalm has come to the final stage of his life prepared in the best possible way.

Hear what he says;

 -- For you, O Lord are my hope my trust O Lord from my youth. Upon you have I leaned from my birth; it was you who took me from my mother’s womb. My praise is continually of you. [Vs. 5-6]


Blessings,


John

Five Foolish Things Christians Do

By John Stallings

A couple had two boys ages 8 & 10 who were mischievous. If there was any trouble around they were usually involved.

A new preacher came to town that’d had success with disciplining problem children so they asked if he would speak to the boys.

The minister agreed to see the two so the mother sent her 8 year old first in the morning, with the older boy to visit in the afternoon.

The preacher had a big booming voice so the youngster’s eyes grew large as he asked him sternly, “Son, where is God?” The kid’s mouth dropped open but he had no response, sitting there in wide-eyed shock. So the minister asked again, “Where is God?”

Finally the preacher stood in front of the boy & shook his finger in his face & asked again as loud as he could, “SON, TELL ME, WHERE IS GOD?”

The boy screamed & bolted from the room, ran home & got in the closet slamming the door behind him. His older brother found him in the closet & asked him “What happened?”

The younger brother gasping for breath replied, “We’re in big trouble this time dude. God’s missing--& they think WE did it!”

When people get desperate, or think they are, it’s amazing what they are willing to do. For example, a wife has been faithful to her husband for years, but because he isn’t as attentive as he should be, she throws discretion to the wind & has an affair.

Or a Christian young man, unwilling to continue to wait to find a Christian mate gives in & marries a woman whose faith is dubious if she even has faith. Or a Christian teenager fed-up with inconsistent parents, rebels & starts taking drugs & having promiscuous sex. The aforementioned are acceptable ways of coping by much of the world. The theme that permeates many popular songs & much of television & movies is; “whatever gets you through the night.”

Recently I was watching Jay Leno [Jay is old news now,] in his “man on the street” skit. He asked a man to name one of the Ten Commandments & he replied, “Freedom of speech.” A woman was asked to complete this sentence, “Let him that is without sin……. The answer came, “have a good time.”

Is our society in trouble or not? But not only are the unsaved in trouble these days, many Christians are so desperate for answers they cook up remedies for their problems that are worse than the problems themselves.

Here are some ways even Christian’s are ruining their lives.

1. ALLOWING EMOTIONS TO OVERRULE GOOD SENSE

Recently I heard a financial expert say;-“most people will never buy a car in their lifetime where their emotions aren’t deeply involved.”

I can relate to that statement although we’ve put over one-hundred thousand miles on our present car & almost a quarter of a million miles on the car we owned before that.

We do far too many things because of our emotions. Actions usually follow feelings like baby ducks follow their mother but that doesn’t mean the mother knows where she’s going.

The other day we were driving on I-4 in Orlando & suddenly came on a wall of tail- lights. We feared the worst but when we got close enough to see the problem it was a mother duck, out in the middle of one of the world’s busiest Super-hi-ways with about ten baby ducks following her. They were cute little rascals but that mother duck didn’t have clue-one as to where she was going nor how much danger she & her babies were in. I don’t know about you but I’ve learned that my emotions usually don’t know where they’re going either.

I won’t belabor it here because I’ve talked about it so much but letting our emotions rule us is always a bad idea, because our emotions & moods can change in 15 minutes for no apparent reason.

I’D LIKE YOU TO IMAGINE A SCENARIO FOR A MOMENT.

Picture a young woman, an immigrant from another country. She’s unfamiliar with the culture & the language but she’s eager to succeed & get ahead. She finds a position working for a wealthy couple in their large home. They are God-fearing people & she feels valued there & is treated like a family member.

But as time goes by she notices problems between the couple. She tells herself it’s none of her business but soon she finds her boss stopping to talk to her as she works. He confides to her there are problems in the marriage & becomes more & more affectionate towards her, which starts to make her uncomfortable.

But to whom can she turn? She has no friends & no support network. She’s completely dependant on her employers for everything. As the boss’s advances become more obvious the young girl wonders what to do. If they fire her she could be out on the street without a job or a roof over her head. This is supposed to be a good & upright man & a respectable citizen. One day her employer comes right out & lets her know he wants her to take his wife’s place in his affections & in his bed.

Did you imagine this story was taking place in a sprawling mansion of a multimillionaire? A high-rise in a big city penthouse apartment? Would it surprise you to know the original story I based this anecdote on happened in a tent made of animal skins at a desert oasis almost four thousand years ago?

Of course it was a different time & customs were different. A slave girl belonged to her owners & there was no such thing as human rights or a place to report sexual harassment. Polygamy was common & a man had a prefect right to have another wife or concubine if he wished, especially if his first wife was unable to have children.

ABRAM AND SARAH

In Genesis chapter 16 there’s this story of Abram & Sarah & their desperation to have a child. Sarah, - are you listening, - Sarah concocted the idea that her husband should have a child through their young Egyptian slave girl Hagar. How foolish does that sound to you?

Though this practice wouldn’t have raised a single eyebrow in that time & among the folk of that day, Abram & Sarah [I know her name was Sarai at this point but I’ll call her by the name that’s most familiar to us,] were abandoning their faith in God’s promise he’d made them by a covenant in chapter 15. Abram & Sarah, so faithful in their lives to this point are now scheming according to the flesh & not according to faith in something that will result in disaster for them & all who would come after them. They were making the mistake of doing God’s business for God.

It’s interesting to note in this story that when Sarah is laughing Hagar is crying & when Hagar laughs, Sarah weeps. Their fortunes & prospects are always moving in opposite directions. Note also that Sarah & Hagar both speak but never to each other. Hagar speaks to God & Sarah speaks to her husband but no one but God addresses Hagar by name. The people around her speak about her but never to her & never call her by name. You may be interested to know Hagar is the only woman in the Bible who dares to give God a name when she calls Him “El-Roi,” meaning “The God Who Sees.”

Getting back to emotional thinking, emotions will say things like; “Well I don’t know what God thinks but I’m going to do this anyway.” Or, “I don’t care if I do go to hell, its hell to live in this condition anyway.” Before you use that last line as an excuse, I’d advise you to go back & read the eighty words that were spoken from hell in Luke 16:23-31.

The second foolish thing Christians do to mess up their lives is;

2. THEY LISTEN TO THOSE WHO ARE UNFAMILIAR WITH THE WORD OF GOD.

Psalm 1:1 says, How blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked.

In verse 2-4 of Genesis 16, the deed was done. Abram & Sarah at last would have the child they’d wanted for so long. The house would soon be filled with the sounds of happiness. Sounds like its right out of a story-book doesn’t it?

But the euphoria was short-lived. Trouble was already brewing. Before the child saw the light of day tension filled the house so thick you could cut it with a knife. What was meant to produce happiness would end up producing nearly endless sorrow in areas they never expected.

Verse 2 says, -So Abram listened to the voice of Sarah.

You may say, “What’s wrong with a man listening to his wife?” Nothing; unless his wife doesn’t understand the will of God. God had spoken to Abram when he left Ur, when he left Haran, & when He made the covenant with him to give him a son. The revelation was made solely to Abram, & Sarah knows far less the he does.

It may surprise you to know how many people when seeking advice, will actually seek out either weak believers or those who don’t know God’s Word at all. As a matter of fact the surest way to make an enemy of some people is step in & tell them what the Bible says.

In Galatians 4 Paul says, --Before you received me as an angel of God, as Christ Jesus Himself. Where then is that sense of blessing you had... Have I therefore become your enemy by telling you the truth?

I blame Abram for what happened here just as much as Sarah, in fact he shirked his responsibility big-time when he simply didn’t refuse what she suggested & remind her of what God had promised.

The third thing Christians do to mess up their lives is;

3. THEY BLAME OTHERS FOR THINGS THEY BRING ON THEMSELVES.

Surely when the trouble started because of what Sarah & Abram did they recognized their fault & owned up to all this, right? Wrong!

After the baby comes Hagar is suddenly elevated from the position of slave to second wife. She now had two things to hold over Sarah’s head; she’s younger & she can have babies. From Sarah’s vantage point this wasn’t the way it was supposed to work out.

But when we resort to fleshly schemes things never work out like we expected.

Whew! But there’s a bright spot here. As soon as it dawned on her what she’d done, Sarah humbled herself & went to her husband & apologized for her ill-fated suggestion. Right? Wrong again! She blamed Abram. That’s right, she’s blaming him. It’s hard to believe that this is the same woman who’s held up to us in the New Testament as a model wife. But to be fair, everyone in this story is just doing what comes “naturally” not obeying God & doing things His way.

It’s very common for people to blame others when their own chickens come home to roost. A sure sign of spiritual immaturity is when people refuse to accept responsibility for their own actions.

I used the story in a message some time ago about a small airline operating out of South America. Most of the clients were missionaries who were shuttled around in the light planes owned & operated by this fledgling air-transport company.

One day one of the planes took off carrying several missionaries & two well known Bible translators to a remote area. The plane had been airborne just a few minutes when it burst into flames & crashed killing all aboard.

When the news reached the headquarters of the little airline where the plane took off & all the planes were serviced, a Christian mechanic took the news hard. The reason he took the news so hard was he remembered his hands were the last to touch the ill-fated aircraft before it left. As he contemplated it, he remembered that in the process of servicing the plane, he’d left a cap off a gas tank. He’d made a mental note to come back & secure the cap but had forgotten to do so.

One of the things that made the story so unusual was that the mechanic didn’t have to tell his story to anyone, but he was convinced his mistake had caused the plane to crash. I was impressed by that story for so many reasons, not the least of which was that mechanic was one in ten-thousand who’d implicate themselves when it would have been easier to just keep quiet about the part they played in the tragedy.

However, life seems to happen less in a linear manner than cyclical, & this man knew in his heart that in the long run he’d be more a candidate for God’s grace to help put it behind him & experience healing if he was open & honest about his mistake, rather than just bottling it all up inside himself.

If we can’t come clean about our mistakes we’re much more likely to repeat them. Many people stagger through life from one crisis to the next, battered, bruised & taken advantage of & it never occurs to them that they hold the key to changing things, but they’re too proud to admit they’re wrong. The wife blames the husband as Sarah did here & as Adam did in the Garden when he told God, The woman thou gavest to be with me she gave me from the tree & I ate.

The fourth thing Christians do to mess-up their life is;

4. THEY COMPROMISE THEIR CONVICTIONS FOR THE SAKE OF KEEPING PEACE.

Doesn’t it seem to you that its time for Abraham to take the bull by the horns in this story? Isn’t it about time he administered the Word of God to his bickering family?

He could have started by saying, “Guys, this all started because I let it happen. I didn’t have to consent to this fleshly scheme but I did & I was wrong. But Sarah, honey, I need you to own up to your guilt & admit it was your idea in the beginning. You brought this on yourself so its high-time you stopped pointing your finger at everyone but yourself; OK? You should have stopped & considered how Hagar was going to react in all this. And Oh, Hagar, girl you need to climb off your high-horse & remember you’re still a servant in this house & you must treat Sarah with respect because she’s my wife.”

So does Abraham start sorting it all out & put things back in order in his house? Nope! Abram turns out to be more of a push-over than a patriarch in this situation. Let’s face it; Abram didn’t want to deal with two bickering women so it’s much easier in this incidence for him to be a mouse than a man.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not advocating that men be overbearing with their wives, a thousand times no. But the husband is supposed to be the leader of his home & sadly many men don’t even know what that means. Godly pastors are preaching & teaching it all over America but men aren’t showing up to hear it. In America’s homes today about the only way a man’s going to rise up & breath fire is if someone misplaces the TV remote. Wives are frustrated, children are exasperated & many men are pusillanimous passives.

Twice during the difficult years of this story Hagar left Abraham’s camp. Once was just before Ishmael’s birth when she ran away because of conflicts that arose between herself & her mistress Sarah. On this occasion an angel from the Lord told her to go back to Abram & Sarah—perhaps because as a runaway slave she’d have no means of support & care for her baby outside their household.

The angel also told her she’d bear a son & that she should call him Ishmael the name that means “God hears.” Fourteen years later Hagar left Abram’s home again this time Ishmael was a young man. Not surprisingly his stock in the family had gone down with the birth of the promised child Isaac. The conflict was so bad Abram sent them away but God spoke to Hagar again & provided water when her son was dying of thirst. God also provided encouragement for her & Ishmael as he led them into a new life. Certainly Hagar was marginalized if not victimized in this situation, a woman without value & standing in the eyes of man. Though God didn’t plan to send the promised son through her, & she wasn’t the lawful wife of Abram, He didn’t see her as insignificant, nor ignore her. God saw her, He spoke to her & he reached out & touched this woman who had no reason to believe her life was of any value to anybody.

Most people know that what we are seeing in the Middle East today, the bombings that are in the news almost daily is the fruit of Hagar’s son Ishmael being born; the fruit of what went on ‘behind the tent flaps” of Abram & Sarah’s household so many years ago when they left God out of their planning & took up fleshly methods rather than rely on the promises of God.

The fifth thing Christians do to mess-up their life is;

5. THEY JUST AREN’T WILLING TO WAIT FOR THE GOOD THINGS GOD HAS FOR THEM.

Nobody likes to wait. As a matter of fact our culture hates to wait. Waiting isn’t one of our strong traits. Make us wait too long & we’re pretty sure something is wrong. Waiting frustrates us, makes us mean, challenges our faith & tempts us to lose hope. There’s a name for people who can patiently wait without going nutso. They’re called saints. Many people however if forced to wait too long, give up & become cynics making the decision to just coast through life. They become permanently disappointed with God & man.

Here’s where young people get in trouble in our materialistic society. They look at what mom & dad have, maybe three cars, an RV, a five bedroom house, flat-screen TVs all over the place, plus a quarter of a million in their retirement account. Not understanding that it took the parents 45 years of working their fingers to the bone to accumulate what they have, the young person sets out to have what the parents have, but they want it NOW!

And just how are these young folk going to do this? Easy! ---Think with me about the credit card you have in your wallet or purse. Did you know it’s a “time machine?” Oh yes, that card at least for a while can reach out & grab the future & pull it right into your present. I’ll bet you never thought about it that way did you? Each day people are charging their way into the future because they’re too impatient to wait for the future to come.

Saving is such a slow & tedious way to work toward home ownership that people have signed for mortgages they can barely afford. Also it’s hard for young people to wait for marriage to have sex so fewer & fewer couples are waiting.

Are you waiting for something big to happen in your life, your marriage, your health, finances or even your ministry? Will you let me tell you something extremely important? Here it is;--LIFE IS PRETTY MUCH A WAITING GAME. Let me go a little further. Life is slow, tedious, many times mundane & is so full of waiting if you’re not careful it can cause you to do something crazy; that is if you don’t know what I’ve just told you. Life includes seasons of running & seasons of waiting with a lot more valley time than mountain-top time.

If you’ve read many of my messages you’ve heard me say—God isn’t a time-dweller & isn’t impressed with time as we are. He calls on us to wait.

God wants us to wait in humility because He’s the king & we’re His subjects. He’s in charge. He knows when the time is right.
Waiting doesn’t mean we’ve been bad or that God is angry at us. Waiting doesn’t mean we’re lost or that God is punishing us.

Let us not grow weary of waiting like Abram & Sarah did & produce Ishmaels in our lives. Let’s not try to jump from mountain-top to mountain-top so we can live on a “false high” all the time.

Waiting doesn’t necessarily even mean that we are in need of repentance of some sin. Waiting just means that we need to be faithful & continue serving God in life’s routines.

In Hagar’s grief & agony, in her shame & hopelessness she cried out to the God of the helpless & the hopeless. The God who saw Hagar also sees you. He sees your need. He sees, knows & cares about your feelings & wants you to reach out to Him. Will you turn to Him? This story reminds us there’s a wonderful wideness in God’s unassailable love.

I invite you to remember with me this marvelous verse;

But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run & not be weary & they shall walk & not faint.—Ish. 40:31


Blessings,

John