IN A YOUTH-ORIENTED CULTURE
the power of change in older generations often goes unnoticed and untapped. This is not a new phenomenon. It was true for me when I was young and restless, ready for life to be different, for things to change. But it was there, nonetheless.

I didn’t understand it then, but I was living among greatness. Farmers and ranchers who somehow carved out their living on thin, rocky high desert soil. Ground breakers. Women who filled lonely wood-frame houses and the families in them with love and care, miles from their “next door” neighbors. Pioneers.

These were the elders in my life who understood the need for and the power there is in change. They didn’t bother to explain it if you didn’t ask. They just lived it.

THEY ALSO UNDERSTOOD ITS DANGER,
something we who live among elders today need to grasp. Like the embers of morning fires, once relevant and important, elders are often left unattended to burn out and die. But neglected embers are dangerous, capable of destroying homes or ravaging fields. And yet, if stirred and nurtured carefully, these same embers will burst into flames we want to stand close to, think great thoughts with, and around which we can share interesting conversations.

How are you doing as a leader among the elders in your home or church or community? Are you inspiring those in their later years toward deeper and richer lives of faith and love? Are you encouraging them to embrace and explain the power there is in change?

“WE CANNOT LIVE
life’s afternoon according to the program of life’s morning; for what was great in the morning will be of little importance in the evening, and what in the morning was true will at evening have become a lie.”1

This is part of the reality one faces in aging. It’s why some in the afternoon of life slide into apathy and indifference. If left unchecked, it’s all too easy for

1 The Structure and Dynamics of the Psyche, Carl Jung

anyone to do. There is, however, a treasure trove of richness in the afternoon of life, a connectivity to the past and the future that is of the highest value. But to understand it, you may have to ask.

If you are a young (50-69) or master (70+) elder, you must also take your place, not from the young, but alongside them. In a day when ‘selfish’ can render ‘selfless’ resources hard to come by, those in the afternoon of life possess a wealth of time, talent, life experience, biblical knowledge, and healthy tradition to pass along to young leaders, who are full of vision, energy and enthusiasm.

But don’t wait. We elders must listen well and keep on growing.

Let me hear in the morning of your steadfast love, for in you I trust.

Make me know the way I should go, for to you I lift up my soul.2

So to all, i say, have a wonderful ‘afternoon.’

 

2 Psalm 143:8