This past weekend has been filled with the joy of celebrating both CfaN’s 50th anniversary and our retirement. The way I see it, there are few things as exhilarating as the bond of shared experience, relived through many stories. Good stories remain good even when retold more times than we are perhaps prepared to admit 😊. Each telling contains the tears and laughter and sheer wonderment at the grace of God over our lives.
“My times are in your hands,” writes the psalmist. Recently, as Best Beloved and I sat chatting about our lifetime, we realized there have been seven clear stages to our lives. We have now started number eight, and, in biblical terms, this indicates new beginnings or transition from one phase to another. How appropriate! Retirement is not an end as some would think, but a launch into something fresh, an adventure unlike any of the past.
For some, reaching a ‘certain age’ turns into a relentless quest for ways to “age well!” However, I have come to this conclusion – present direction depends on NOT trying to restart the parked car of past experience. No matter how ruggedly attractive or elegantly beautiful it may be, no matter how many travel stickers adorn it, it is only the proof of travels now over. If I may hammer the metaphor a bit harder – now is the time for a new vehicle, the one that will take us into new horizons and bring us to the people we are meant to serve at this stage of being.
I’m sure you’ve heard it said: “Not every old person is wise, but every wise person is old”😊! I believe wisdom grows when we thoughtfully and deliberately take each experience, both positive and negative, hold it before the Father and prayerfully examine it with the discernment that is ours by the Holy Spirit. Only then can experience be woven into the fabric of our lives and because of the grace so richly offered us, produce something unexpectedly beautiful. Some have been quick to say, almost reprovingly: “You don’t retire from the Call!” True. However, wise are those who recognize times and seasons! If the old don’t move out, how will the young(er) move in while there is still time to glean wisdom from the experience of the old?
As I look back over the past 77 years, I see my own path is patterned by the footprints of people who have walked with me, some fleetingly, others for a lifetime. Some have left prints so deep that they become pools every time it rains, keeping the roots of my tree of life vital and able to produce the ‘fruit in season’ that Psalm 1 describes so beautifully. Invariably these are people who I don’t remember for their perfection, but for their passion. Whether preachers or homemakers, cooks or poets, gardeners or music makers, the common denominator is that they are all good listeners.
As a young woman, “The Listener” by Taylor Caldwell, marked me for life. Generous rain from the Holy Spirit has turned this footprint into a deep pool of desire to be what I read on those pages – a listener without the need to speak. Perhaps this is the ultimate wisdom!
