The Blessing of Experience

[Mike Vande]

MY blessing today is experience.

I got a haircut last night after work. I may be wrong, but I think the mirrors in barber and beauty shops make people look at least ten years older. You look at yourself in those mirrors, and your jowls hang like an English bulldog, your hair is twice as gray as it looks in your bathroom mirror, and your face takes on this sort of Alzheimerish look of confusion, as if you can't remember why you are there.

The wrinkly sensation of approaching senility I felt looking in that mirror was compounded by the fact that earlier that day, A "kid" who was one of my students 20 years ago told our employer that he knew me when my hair was light brown. It really didn't help that the "kid" was going gray himself. Between him and that bewitched hair stylist's mirror, I was thinking I should start checking out brochures for nursing homes, if I could remember where to look for them.

To say "we live in a culture obsessed with youth" is a cliche'. But lines like that become cliche' by being true enough to repeated over and over. Between TV shows like "The Swan" and "Extreme Makeover" (I'm old enough to remember when they were working on people instead of houses), the daily dish on the celebrity gossip shows about who had which part or parts of their body bleached, lifted, separated, suctioned, channeled, chopped, chromed, and/or toasted, and all the products in the drug stores to darken hair, lose weight without dieting, smooth out wrinkles, and in general put the average old fossil in danger of being carded at the convenience store, it should be obvious that no one wants to look old, no matter how old they may, in fact, be.

And it's adding injury to insult when the same drug stores place the packages of Depends next to the "Look Like A Kid Again" stuff. It's like they are offering you a very limited choice between joining the youth-obsessed culture or admitting you're too old to be concerned about anything but keeping your pants dry.

I am older than I ever thought I would live to be. In my twenties, after seeing the disgusting & humiliating state of life in nursing homes and the medical problems old bodies eventually develop, I told myself and others that if I ever got to the stage where I had to take medicine each day just to keep going, I would turn out the lights myself. Call it the "My Generation" syndrome; as Pete Townshend wrote, "I hope I die before I get old."

Well, a man in his twenties can say such things, especially if he has no concept of the value God places on life. I, not being a Christian, didn't. I gratefully take six different medicines every day now, gratefully because I suffered with the conditions that made them necessary long enough to know that life is much better with them than without them.

Western culture's obsession with youth is contrary to the Biblical concept of age. A head full of white hair is a crown of glory in God's sight, regardless of what Brittany, Paris, and Lindsey might think.

Richard Pryor had a really good comment as to why that's true on one of his comedy albums; he said you don't get old being a fool, and a lot of young "wise" men are dead. People who have lived long enough to have white hair knew enough not to get killed before their time. That may not seem like much until you think about how many folks don't make it to 40 for really dumb reasons.

Every year, The Darwin Awards sifts through a whole new batch of statistics who died in less than brilliant ways, and give the honor for that year to the one whose method of dying was so ridiculous it is obvious they have served mankind by removing themselves from the available gene pool. Cold blooded? Yeah, but then stupidity, while not illegal, carries a death sentence from which there is no appeal...

This morning, an internet friend told me she had just about given up playing the guitar. She has taken it back up after not playing for a while, and is having trouble getting her chops back. She said if she didn't believe God had given her the guitar she has now, she would have thrown in the towel because she just doesn't seem to be improving. I wrote her back and said the trick is to just keep playing. If you keep playing, you will get better at it. I gave her some other advice, and while I was typing it out, I realized that I was able to advise her because I had been there, and I knew it was true.

I gave a lot of advice as a young man. It was kind of a hobby of mine, I guess. Most of my advice was based on speculations I entertained without ever verifying by living them through. It was about as valuable as a color wheel composed by a blind man; nothing but guesses.

At the ripe and wrinkly age I have achieved, there are a lot of things I don't have to guess about anymore. One of them is that I have learned better than to give advice based on guesses; people can come back after trying your advice, looking like Wylie Coyote after one of his Acme gadgets blew up in his face, carrying a notice they are in the running for that years Darwin Award, and saying "I did everything you told me to do..."

I have also learned that no time of life is without it's problems, whether it's painfully living through learning what and what not to do, or taking pills every morning to get through another day comfortably. The grass may look greener on the other side of the age fence, but that may just be the green callowness of all those young folks over there, reflecting onto the grass. I know it's not coming from my side of the fence; not even the grass is green over here. Whatever...

In any event, I was blessed by being able to give good advice to a friend this morning, and I thank God for it. Now if I can just remember it long enough to enjoy it...

[Jennifer Smith]

I have also learned that no time of life is without it's problems, whether it's painfully living through learning what and what not to do

Really. That is one of the worst parts about a new job, or any new season of life.
But at least having been around a while, you have learned some things! And I'm sure you give good advice with an improved hope-ful attitude, praise God. That encourages me.

[Pastor Gary]

Your post reminded me of one of my favorite sayings, that I use often when talking to people in pain and crisis:

God never wastes a hurt.

Everything we go through becomes an arrow in our quiver to be fired by the Holy Spirit when he needs it.

[Jennifer Smith]

Your post reminded me of one of my favorite sayings, that I use often when talking to people in pain and crisis:

God never wastes a hurt.

Everything we go through becomes an arrow in our quiver to be fired by the Holy Spirit when he needs it.

That is a good one for me today, unfortunately I would like the arrow to be shot at that person right now!
Learning a new job is never easy, and especially dealing with a hyper-vigilant untactful supervisor who is quick to lay blame on the new guy is really frustrating! "Grace" to have a good attitude, and to be good, is what I keep asking God for...