God Moving At Maranatha

What I Am Learning from the Older Generation

Faith is like fine wine.  It matures with age.  Children, youth, and middle-aged adults each contribute something vital to the church’s life.  What the older generation brings can only be obtained through age and experience.

Here are some of the things I am learning from the older generation:

1.  You can continue to have vital and winsome faith into old age.   Our seniors occupy many roles in the church.  They volunteer in ministries, direct ministries, and sit on our church’s Council.  Some, for reasons of health, have had to take a less active role; yet, when older people walk in faith they continue to impact the church regardless of their official position.  They bear testimony to God’s goodness and faithfulness, and their wisdom and love point the way forward for younger generations.

2.  God’s grace will sustain us to the end.  The latter years of life are never easy, and for some they are very difficult.  They come with losses and physical challenges.  While some of our seniors maintain a peaceful heart through these trial, others complain to God like the psalmists did. Either way, by holding on to God they testify that God reigns.

3.  Everything God says must be true.  I talked with a widowed senior recently who spoke of the joy he felt in serving his wife in her last weeks.  A question sprang to mind: “How could this person find joy in the difficult and sometimes disagreeable task of ministering to a dying person?” I knew there could be just one answer: only the existence of God and the reality of His promises in Christ could explain it. If we are the products of a mindless, mechanistic universe, then the death of a loved could only be meaningless and without consolation.  But since God is redeeming the universe through Jesus Christ, and since the Holy Spirit lives in this man’s heart, his response makes perfect sense.

4.  The best is yet to come.  Watching the older generation reminds me that life in this world is not forever, and that that is okay.  I have watched the older generation in Maranatha Church accept the brevity of life and the prospect of death with grace. Their confidence in God’s promise of eternal life inspires and encourages me. —Pastor Tom