Little children, aka adorable escape artists, are filled with glee-filled bravado in their breakaways. That is, until looking back, there is no sign of parents anywhere in the airport concourse! Then, it’s instant panic – on both ends of the age span! Decades later, the script is flipped. The gentle-paced elder moves with the tentative, less spontaneous, gait of those who’ve somersaulted and jump-roped and jumping jacked until wisdom has called a moratorium on those potentially injury-ridden, cardiovascular activities. The watching, younger generation, hovers anxiously lest the next, precarious-looking, step cause a stumble and a fall.
Ironically, in between those bookend years are the bulk of life’s decades, that time of muscle-flexing, distance training, confidence-growing, family-raising, and wide-spectrum independence. These years are filled with activities, education, jobs and careers, family and friends, all in a search for significance. Dependence has often disappeared from the radar, and from the vocabulary.
Our spiritual journey sees some parallels. As new believers in Jesus, we love having him holding our hands, leading us, speaking comfort in our ears, being by our side all through those early, golden days of our new life. In our spiritual ‘adulthood,’ there’s a strong tendency to feel no need of being led, of needing a hand. Then come the golden years with seniority’s wisdom, steeped in the cauldron of life‘s cumulative experiences, and a gratefulness for help when it is offered.
When Jesus told his disciples that he would be with them to the very end of the age, I think he meant that his guiding hand would always, moment by moment, without exception, be extended, available, close. My guess is he never intended for us to spend the majority of our years as the ‘master of our fate, the captain of our soul.’ (William Ernest Hensley, in ‘Invictus.’ 1875). On the contrary, that very ‘I’ll do it myself’ attitude is a full-on denial of the ever-present help, the Fatherly watch care, the Divine outpouring of all things perfect, the Lordship of Jesus Christ. An old hymn laments: ‘Oh! What needless pain we bear, all because we do not carry everything to the Lord in prayer.’ Yep! There it is! Ouch! PD
Don graduated from Regent University in 1988 and moved to France for seven years, coming back to the US briefly to marry Sue in 1990. The work in France included working in a Christian School and helping plant a church before returning in 1995. He’s been pastor of Peninsula Vineyard since 1999. He enjoys counseling, especially married couples, traveling back to France (with Sue), reading, doing Sudoku puzzles and sleuthing out good, dark chocolate. Don serves as the senior pastor of the Vineyard Church Peninsula, in Newport News, Virginia.