Last week, in “Finding the Right Platform,” I told you about my “unscientific research” project concerning the “type” of platform this blog is being built on.

Foundations are important

While a senior pastor, I considered carefully the foundations laid by my predecessors. I took seriously the Apostle Paul’s words, “According to the grace of God given to me, like a skilled master builder I laid a foundation, and someone else is building upon it. Let each one take care how he builds upon it” ~ 1 Cor 3:10.

I was contacted recently by one of the pastors in the church I served for 23 years, seeking “perspective” for future choices, desiring to understand how decisions in the past came to be made and how God had led during my watch as senior pastor.

Each generation must bring new vision and guidance, but building intelligently and with understanding on foundations laid earlier is important. We all need “perspective” to help move us in the right direction.

So what does Paul’s reminder have to do with a blog site? It’s my beginning point for a foundational conversation on the purpose of life; on unpacking what it means to age, to be older; and on respecting “spheres of influence” as we make our way through life’s second half. I’m doing what I’ve always done, building on foundations of life and work given by those who came before me.

You are a leader in the church, business or professional worlds, and in your family; you can be great at this if you live as the unique person you were designed to be; and if you keep the Spirit of Jesus at the center of your uniqueness.

 

Am I too young for this?

I’m the first to admit I may not be old enough to write this sort of thing, having only recently celebrated my 80th birthday. So, acknowledging I still have a way to go and a great deal to learn, I am reserving the right to revisit at 90, what I am writing today. I may have to do some editing.

 

Why the Perspective theme?

My “perspective” on second half living, learning and leading is built on principles taken right out of the Holy Scriptures; from listening to and reading my mentors, peers, and ministry colleagues; and from tracking with great men and women in history and in my lifetime.

My “perspective” also comes from pastors I have known and leaders in older adult ministry with whom I’ve been privileged to share life and work.

And finally, my “perspective” comes from successes and failures in life that I have experienced first hand. Life lessons, some painful, others beautiful, providing wisdom guidelines needed for the journey. To do this with honesty, vulnerability and humility is a must. Telling things as they were and are, not as I wish they had been.

 

Why me?

Truth? Well, the truth is it seems the longer I live, the less I know. I am a child admiring stick figure pictures, placed with pride on our refrigerator door. With the passing of years, I am that same child, now gazing in awe at the works of great masters hanging silently on a wall at the Louvre.

My “perspective” on life and the way we live it changes with the years. Stick figures were all I once knew, all I could measure the art of living by. The work of the Master Artist is what I now long for.

 

True story.

There was once a young boy who made bricks from straw and mud. It was all he knew, until one day he followed a stranger to the water’s edge and watched the sea part, while he and his people walked across on dry ground. The years came and went, but he never forgot. This young man stayed close to the stranger, who became his mentor and friend. When his mentor died, he took his place and became the people’s leader.

More years went by. At last the day came when “Joshua summoned all Israel, its elders and heads, its judges and officers, and said to them, ‘I am now old and well advanced in years.  And you have seen all that the Lord your God has done to all these nations for your sake, for it is the Lord your God who has fought for you’ (Joshua 23:2).

In a word, you have ‘perspective!”

And the mantle of leadership passed on once again.

Joshua made time to reflect and remember, to ensure the stories of his past and theirs did not die with him. Motivational oral history, written records of the “whys,” and sagas of faith were the fodder that launched new generations with hope and vision into a future day.

Whether one is the leader of a nation, a church, a business, or a family, having a foundational conversation and giving genuine “perspective” is what good leaders do.