I had an interesting day yesterday. The first three emails I received and replied to were from people I either rarely hear from or never hear from. The first was from the wife of a couple who were the first people in 1997 to invite Sue and myself to a meal when we had moved into Cobham. (We were not married yet so had meals with our respective hosts: Ralph and Ruth, Richard and Linda… but Rosemary and Rob were the first to invite us outside of our hosts.) I probably have not seen / talked to Rosemary in 25 years. The second email was from a very gracious minister who has worked across Baptist churches (and beyond) and is somewhat restricted with respect to how much travel can now be done. The third email was to let me know that her father at 91 had recently passed away. Kitt was someone I met on a few occasions and was always impacted by his humility and desire to be always moving forward.
History impacting the present. Rewards from heaven for those who have been faithful. And impacts in my life. I wish to be faithful to leave a mark for others who are younger or more recently on the trail of following Jesus, but I also seek to keep my eye on those who are further along the journey and honour their faithfulness (an early email this morning I received was from a couple who are ‘celebrating their 40th wedding anniversary this year’).
By the time I was replying to those three emails I recalled (and I have written about this elsewhere) that in 1991 I was in South Africa at Easter and one morning ‘saw’ a number of things to come. One was a sizeable number of young people who had caught the fire of God (not surprising as there was much talk of an army of ’11th hour workers’) but what caught my attention was that alongside this was a whole group of those who were 55 years old and above. The group might not have been the same size but it was certainly equally,and probably more, effective. Those people were mixed. Some had ‘early retirement’, some had been content to be attenders, others had thought that they were now too far through their lives to make a difference in our planet… but they all had the same element in common. They had recognised they had one life and whether the years remaining were short or long they were repositioning themselves and for many their latter years were more effective than all those years that had gone before.
I appreciate post 55, and certainly post 65, our energy levels drop, other challenges come in to slow us down and restrict us. But… if we are not looking for the public profile there will always be accidental and deliberate ‘cups of cold water’ and ‘2 coins in the treasury’ that can be done. I have been meditating on Paul (I call him a friend much to Judith’s amusement!) being dragged out of the city and left for dead. If we were to shrink the passage we would read, ‘dragged out… got up and went back in’. Love that.
Time for those of us not so young to find out what that might mean for us.
A number of people who are roughly my age (55+) have said to me recently ‘why can’t we do…’ In other words it is a mindset shift that has been provoked in them.
I have been frustrated (ask Gayle) why the average of those who join me on Zoom meetings is around 105 years old (ask Gayle I never exaggerate) – where are the 23 year olds I ask. They might come; they might not come. But what a resource for kingdom involvement is present with those who can only just remember what 23 looked like.
I honour those who have walked this path before and have gone on to receive a reward; I desire to see those who are 23 carrying a level of maturity that maybe a 46 year old and who have no fear; but I also see that now is an opportunity for the breath of heaven come to those who are no longer 23 but still have time left.
Got to make sure I have some cold water and am ready to deposit those coins.