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Crystal Cathedral

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Kindness Korner

Merry Xmas

When I was a child I was told in was inappropriate and irreverent to write X-mas. The teachers said using the X instead of writing Christ was a way of leaving Christ out of Christmas.

Years later I learned the truth.  For one thing the letter X is not the third to the last letter of  the English alphabet, like in XYZ.  It is a Greek letter, and pronounced chi (ki).  And that letter is the first letter of the word Christ in its original Greek language.  It legitimately represented the word Kristos or Christ.

So Xmas is in fact Christmas.


The Connecticut Slaughter

Twenty-eight children and adults have been murdered.    The first priority for all of us in the U.S. is to feel that pain, actualize the sorrow, weep and be in anguish.  Jesus said "weep with those who weep".

The media is preoccupied with obviously relevant issues like gun control and mental illness.  Those must be considered, but for right now they distract us and pull us away from the heart-brokenness we must share.  The causes of this incredible massacre must be faced but for the time being this is a time of weeping and mourning.  

Getting at causes eases our pain.  Such concerns move us out of our hearts and bowels into our heads, into thinking instead of feeling.  That process should wait. It is a process of too quickly moving on and too inapprpriately cogitating instead of a letting the pain be.

The only comfort is Jesus' love for every child.  They are safe in the arms of Jesus--every one of them.  The parents would have them back in their own arms, and so would we,  but Christmas reminds us of the powerful, beautiful love of Jesus for every child.

Have Fun at Christmas!!

It is the fashion about this time each year to begin Christmas shopping.  We may load our pockets with cash, and our hearts with guilt.  Some folks have been brought up on warnings and admonitions every time there is a time of fun. Some Christians don’t know how to have fun, unless it is sprinkled and spiced with guilt.  It is as if they must be more serious, thrifty, concerned about others.  As the Christmas season opens, writers and speakers in the Christian community say, in one way or another, like our parents did when we went out for an evening of fun, “Now be careful!”  So now it is  “Have a Merry Christmas, but not too merry, not too joyous, not too much fun.” 

Again we will hear about over-commercializing Christmas, putting Christ back into Christmas, the paganism of the Christmas tree, tinsel as the symbol of superficiality, cash registers as the symbol of what Christmas has become.  Necessary correctives perhaps, but we need more of the opposite. We need encouragement to have fun, let our joy bloom, even be foolishly full of fun, or extravagant.  Isn’t that what the heart of Christmas is, namely, “joy to the world”.

I will never forget an incident from our first year of marriage.  Linda and I were living in Ann Arbor and our lives became intertwined with a family of desperately poor people.  A mother, and four children all of school age.  They lived in abject poverty.  They had broken windows, very little money, a sickly mother, and a house that was hardly livable.  But when Christmas came the children had through odd jobs accumulated a little money and they invited us to come over on Christmas Day to see the gift they had bought for their mother.  They were very excited about it.

  So we went to their house, carrying in our minds some vague expectations of what kind of a gift they had bought for her.  Perhaps a warm coat, a new purse, or maybe an electric frying pan, or a toaster.  Instead we were knocked over with surprise and chagrin.  They had us close our eyes as they went into the next room to get the gift.  Then they brought from behind the curtain the gift.  It was a huge stuffed donkey about five feet tall!  It must have cost them $25 or $35 (1962).  They were thrilled.  We were stunned but acted like we were pleased.  In fact we thought it was a very “stupid” gift.  Of all the things she needed, that was the least.

Still, as we thought about it, there may have been something right in that kind of gift..  Here they were in their poverty hardly anything they could have bought of a practical nature would have changed their status significantly.  So why not buy something totally enjoyable just for the fun and excitement of giving it?

A little of that that has to go into the Christmas season. Instead of hand-wringing and furrowed brows about the fun we’re having when there are poor people dying on the other side of town, maybe a little reckless happiness is called for. Christians must be thoughtful and give to those other kind of concerns, but there is something bottomless about that pit.  There is a time for unrestrained Christmas foolishness, impractical fun.  Forget, the shaking fingers and historical surveys about the paganism of the Christmas tree.  Enjoy Christmas and have fun.  Christ lives! Relax and enjoy Christmas freely and fully, uncluttered by guilt.





Advent

The season of Advent begins four Sundays before Christmas.  It is the time we get ready for Jesus' birth.  A beautiful old hymn describes the ages-old sense of anticipation people embraced:

O come, O come Immanuel                                   
And ransom captive Israel
That mourns in lonely exile here
Until the Son of God appear.
Rejoice.  Rejoice.  Immanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel.

One of the most beautiful traditions of Advent is the lighting of the Advent Wreath.
The Advent Wreath is a continuous ciecle of evergreens representing the ceaseless flow of time and our unending hope.  The evergreens are a symbol of Christ who became man that we might have Everlasting Life, and of God who loves us endlessly.

The four candles spaced around the wreath designate the four eras during which the world waited for Christ.  Three purple candles symbolize humility.  The rose candle represents joy and hapiness.  All four symbolize hope whic fills the Advent season.  The pure white candle is the center of the wreath and symbolizes the Christ Child.
It is Sunday but Monday is aComin'

That is a very important line.  It describes what going to church is really about.  It isn't about getting things right with God, or once again focusing on our sins to get forgiveness.  Forgiveness is there.  It may help to go to church to get that reassurance but it isn't a way of earning credits with God so that he is sure to forgive us.  Jesus said on the cross as he came to the end of his suffering "It is finished."  The debt is totally paid.  No more sacrifices, rituals seeking forgiveness, crying out in desperation.  That kind of religion is finished.  Our sins, past, present, and future are forgiven. 

Going to church is mostly about getting re-directed for the week ahead.  The loving Jesus lives in every one of us.  The weekly assignment is to find ways to let the love of Jesus out of ourselves into the lives of those around us and into our work as well. It happens through friendliness, encouragement, appreciative words, compliments, showing interest, caring touches, smiles, helping hands, "showing up".   Even if our work is not centered on people we can organize, systematize, improve and strengthen things, and the use of processes, all of which are basically here to make life better for the human race.  In doing that we are indeed making the world a better place.  That is what we are here for.

These processes and helps are what Sunday and church are about----refocusing, recovering, restoring, rethinking, being refreshed and healed.  Then it is Monday and we are back renewed in order to be  brightening the world.  Everyone can do it.  And everyone needs it.  "Brighten the world where you are."

Thanksgiving Means Gratitude

Thanksgiving Means Gratitude

After many months of silence it is time to talk again.  This is a new beginning for which I am very grateful..Speaking of being grateful, I have learned in the last couple of years that gratitude (remember it is Thanksgiving time) is not a religious activity in the old fashioned sense.  Gratitude is more like exercise, eating properly, getting enough sleep.  That is, it is a health benefit.

When we realize that steady, consistent, grateful thoughts and remembrances are like taking vitamins, or maybe even antibiotics, we then know the idea is a gift of God.  Thankfulness is a central Christian theme.  But it is not something we do to please a stern and watchful God.  No, we please God with thankfulness because God is pleased when we take care of ourselves.

The primary research about gratitude has been done at a State University, not a Christian College or University.  Dr. Robert Emmons at California State University -Davis has written a book entitle Thanks  .  It is based on the research his graduate students have engaged in measuring the effects of grateful activities.  To put it briefly the results are basically--the more you are grateful the better you will be in your daily life.

Thanks equals Gratitude

God Heals. We Walk Along Side

God Heals
(But God sincerely requests your gracious assistance)

It should be engraved on the mind and in the heart of every warmhearted and softhearted follower of Jesus that God heals the broken hearted and we do not have to try to do it.  If there is healing needed God will take care of it.  All we have to do is “show up.”

We all know those who have come back to life after being “hit by a freight train”.  Some have come through the most dreadful tragedies imaginable and now years later once again smile, laugh, dance, and sing.  It is never right away, and it shouldn’t be.  There is never singing without a deep pain in one corner of their heart.  But they do come back to sing once more.

Our place, when people are hurt, devastated, troubled or heart-broken, is to be there.  We must be with them.  There at their sides we confidently and patiently allow God to work.  God is healing while we walk along side---listening, mingling our tears with theirs, praying, hugging.  This means we must resist our impulses to try to fix them.  It means resisting our logical explanations and theological perspectives that say why this happened or how it can be softened.  We mostly help ourselves with such endeavors, not them.  We just walk along side while God heals them.      


Faith is not an Army Tank

                    FAITH IS NOT AN ARMY TANK

Helen's faith has failed.  Her husband, still young, once a successful physician, is now confined to a nursing home.  He has Alzheimer's Disease.  Over the months since his diagnosis he has grown progressively out of touch.  Today he hardly knows Helen.

She has sold their home to help cover her deepening financial crisis and is looking into selling some of her jewelry.  Her friends have distanced themselves, they feel helpless and unable to handle their own dismay.  Helen herself, wounded in spirit, is pulling back from social contacts.

Her lament to me today, however, is not about her troubles but about her lack of faith through all this.  Sorrow, anger, and frustration batter her soul.  Depression lurks at the door and threatens to take up total and permanent residence in her spirit.

God seems to be nowhere around, she sighs.  Her prayers, mere cries, feel empty and directionless.  Ordinarily a spirited, vivacious woman with an expressive faith, she appears wan and defeated.  Helen is disappointed in herself that she is so crippled by, and heartsick over, what is happening.  A person of faith should do better, she believes.  A good Christian should, she says, find her faith giving her courage, hope, and even cheer in times like this.

No Army Tank.  I talk to Helen about her faith.  I tell her that having faith is not like riding in an Army tank, protected on every side from the onslaughts of life, rolling smoothly over every pothole and obstacle in the path.

Faith is, rather, like walking with little protection into a war zone.  You're hit from all sides and wounded, but you continue on with a Companion at your side who is injured every time you are, but still holds you. Like many people, Helen seems to believe that faith is separate from the person. The individual may be bludgeoned, but faith should keep thriving, untouched..

Reality teaches something different.  When life hammers it’s inevitably harsh and sometimes savage blows, we are knocked down--faith and all.  Staggered and bloodied, we and our faith, struggle to get up again, to go on, to endure, to recover.

Helen can't possibly expect her faith to be healthy and robust; she's been "run over by a freight train."  She is wounded, deeply wounded.  Her world has collapsed.  She has lost her security, her dreams, and her husband.  He is like a stranger, and years of worsening distress lie ahead for them both.  How could she go through this any differently than she is?  How can she expect of herself resilient, normal, wonderful faithfulness in a time like this?

No Guarantee.  Helen is suffering.  Suffering brings serious pressure on a person and her faith.  That is what suffering is, a painful disruption of one's whole life--physical, social, emotional, spiritual.

There is no easy solution to Helen's pain.  The healing capacity put within her by her Creator can eventually restore her.  Nevertheless, she has no guarantee she will emerge from her struggle better instead of bitter, deeper instead of more shallow.  The support of the community of faith around her is her greatest hope.

Perhaps we can inoculate future Helens against the same kind of spiritual despair over faith's failure.  We can do so by modifying the conventional image of faith we pass on to our children--by dismantling the Army-tank model.  This model sets everyone up for disillusionment--or it prepares them to see faith as the denial that anything hurts.

Faith, we need to see--and to teach--is not the capacity to eliminate pain.  It is not a spiritual strength that makes life's heartaches hurt less.  Faith is not a spiritual superiority that lifts one above the ordinary tears and grief of life.  It is not immunity from disease, failure, or loss, and it is not armor against the perplexity, despair, and confusion these troubles usually bring with them.

Quite the opposite--faith is freedom to enter pain, to feel it for what it is.  Faith is the capacity to experience life at full strength, to mourn personal and global threats and losses, to enter--as raw-nervedly as mere people can--into our own and others' diseases and agonies.  Faith, at it's core, is essentially the ability to suffer.

Rather than a power model of faith that makes us think we can and should be super-persons, we need a weakness model.  God has revealed himself to us as one who has the courage to hurt, not as a hero who shrugs blows off.  God, in Jesus, entered our condition, our pain, our humanness.  He did not stride valiantly above it all, he agonized.

Faith is an awareness that God is alongside us in all circumstances.  God has been there, and God is there with us, all the way, come what may.  "If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there...even there your hand will guide me."  (Ps. 139:8-10).

We need to equip ourselves and our children with this more biblically realistic teaching.  Otherwise we promote and practice Christian faith as another self-help technique that denies the actualities of life in this broken world.

Life is difficult.  The storms will be there.  We will be knocked about.  Christian faith grants no immunities.  We have only the knowledge of the presence with us of He who accepted no immunity.

We may not feel His presence when earthquakes shake, tornados destroy; or when we're ripped with sorrow, anger, or fear.  We will only be able to remember it.  He hurts with us and weeps with us.  He is taking every blow we get.  He is with us, holding us.

God seems to stress far more his suffering with us, his entering into our circumstances, than he does his power over everything.  "The weakness of God is stronger than man's strength," says Paul,  stressing this point (2Cor. 1:25).  And God says, "My power is made perfect in weakness." (2Cor. 12:9).

The Christian life of faith is thus an invitation to humanness, an invitation to walk accompanied by our suffering Lord, unprotected, feeling the pain that life brings.  Then, and then only, do we gain the potential for abundant living. 

Forgiveness and Gratitude

In the category of being kind to yourself are two major categories.  They are Forgiveness and Gratitude.  Most people have grown up with these major themes close to their hearts.  But many missed God's point in trying to inspire and motivate us toward forgiving and thankfulness.

They thought they were expected to please God, that is make God more positive toward them, if they expressed thankfulness to God for the gifts of their lives.  Also forgiveness was regarded as a move we must make to soften God's attitude toward us.  In other words they were religious activities.

Today we know something extremely important.  God talked and prophesied on these themes for our personal every day well-being. Forgiving heals our hearts.  that is why God pushes us in that direction.  Forgiving relieves burdens, pressures, resentments that sicken our souls and weigh us down.  Not that forgiving is easy. It often takes enormous effort. Sometimes it helps to change the word.  Instead of "forgive" we can say "let it go" or "give it to God."  The advantage of these other words is that they illustrate ther removal of enormous hurts from our hearts--not letting a guilty operson off.

Gratitude has taken a similar turn.  It's synonym is thankfulness.  Both words are every day attitudes for Jesus' children.  But again we have mostly supposed that thankfulness was an attitude that showed The Lord our spiritual maturity or appropriatenss.  It does, but God's teaching us to be grateful people is for our well-being every day of the week. People who spend a few minutes every hour to realize and "give thanks" for all their hourly blessings become happier and healthier.

So first of all we give thanks for the presence of Jesus and his Love in our hearts, then we go on to number all the other beauties and benefits of every day of life.

Act Like You Care


Act Like You Are Kind

I doubt that doing good, helping someone, cheering another person—even when you do not feel like doing it, can ever be called phony.  Immeasurable good, spirit-lifting, and even healing is possible through actions performed by those who are determined to do what is right and needed even if they themselves are feeling overwhelmed, lacking in confidence, and maybe even irritated.  Not only that, once done the one who did it will feel better!

Paying compliments, speaking worlds of encouragement, expressing appreciation and admiration must not wait until we feel like delivering such gifts.  Such actions are part of doing what is right and what is needed.  They are not to wait until we feel warm and friendly.  They are a matter of will more than emotions.  “Love one another” is not amended by the words “when you feel like it.”


# 7 Amend your Story

#7  Amend and edit your grievance story in such a way that you are reminded you have the powerful option to forgive.  Other words for forgive are "let it go"  "release it"  "Give it to God"  These expressions are less likely to include the idea of discounting what another did to you that was pretty dastardly.---Lushkin

# 6 Seek new ways. (Lushkin).

# 6  Put your energy into looking for another way to reach your positive goals.  Erase the direction or option that has led to your present hurt.

# 5 Give up expecting...from others....

# 5  Stop expecting things from others, or from life itself that may not ever be reasonable to expect.

You can hope and pray for health, love, friendship and prosperity.  You can work hard to achieve them  But do not demand or depend on such things happening.  Do not set your heart on something that may not happen.

# 4 Get the Right Perspective....

Your primary distress comes from your injured feelings.  Not from what happened.  Therefore practice stress-management any moment you feel the upset.  Work to soothe your flight or fight intentions.

3. cf. Frederic Lushkin of Stanford University-all points originate with Dr. Lushkin

# 3   "Understand your goal.  Forgiveness does not necessarily mean reconciling with people or condoning their action.  You are looking for peace, the peace that comes from blaming less the one who has hurt you.  It is a process of taking the experiwence less personally and changing the way you look at your grievance.

"Seven Steps to Forgiveness # 2


# 2  Decide that you will do whatever is necessary to feel better.   You need share this decision with no one.  But promise yourself you will follow through  because this is for your health and well-being.  It is not for the perpetrator.

Seven Steps to Forgiveness -- #1



1.  Know exactly how you feel about what happened.  Be able to articulate what it is about the situation that is unacceptable and distressing.

Ten "Goods" that Emerge from Deep Hurts

1.  Sympathy...is Enlarged
2.  Love...Expands
3.  Gratitude...Renews
4.  Insight...Deepens
5.  Commitments...Strengthened
6.  Faith...Refocusses
7.  Courage...Mustered
8.  Forgiveness...Generated
9.  Wounds ...Healed
10. Hope...Born

cf.  Nicholas Wolterstorff



Humility

Humility is seen in the capacity to do what needs to be done.  Humility includes not thinking oneself greater than others, but the evidence of humility is a willingness to step forward instead of hanging back. It is seen in giving a hand rather than waiting for others to lead the way most of the time.

Often it is pride, not humility, that causes us not to speak up, not to ask a question, not to volunteer or express one's opinions.  Pride inhibits boldness.

Once I asked in a group setting for a volunteer to come forward and play the piano for a sone we would sing.  No one moved.  Finally someone coaxed a young woman to go forward.  She played superbly.  I assumed she had believed that humility required her kind of reluctance.  But is wasn't humility.  It was a form of pride protecting her from looking pushy or bold.  Humility would have offered to help right away.

Jesus was humble.  But he did not hang back.  He did what had to be done, gave what he had to give.
He shows us that obedience and helpfulness are the true marks of humility.

The Reason for Quiet Time


The reason for Quiet Time with the Lord is to get help.  It is not an end in itself.  That is, there is nothing beneficial about a time of devotional focus unless something good comes out of it.  Spending time with The Lord is to gain healing, encouragement, assurance, in order that we can more effectively contribute to those around us and our world. 

We are partners with God in building a better creation.  That is our life agenda. We learn that soon after finding our places as Followers of Jesus.  We learn that believing in the Lord Jesus assures us of life with Him in this life and the life to come.  But there is a lot more to this new life we have been given.  The new life is, in Jesus words “your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”  That is what life is about. It is making the earth a place of greater goodness, beauty, justice and worthwhileness.  Each of us is a partner with Jesus in this wonderful project.

Encourage Others and Tell Your Story


Thoughtful Aging
Intentional Christian aging is different than slipping, sliding, coasting and idling into Senior years.  That ought to be our agenda as Christians-thoughtful aging.
Much of life is relatively clearly defined – infancy, toddler times, kindergarten, elementary school, high school, college or career, marriage, parenthood, are well-modeled.  We know what these phases involve. BUT NOT THE THIRD QUARTER OR THE SECOND HALF.  Something has happened so rapidly that we lack models, traditions, patterns, guidelines about how to live to 95 or 100 instead of to 75 or 85.  
By nature or training, my dad, while a wonderful, generous, caring person did not know how to concentrate his energies on giving encouragement, support, admiration, interest and pats on the back,.to the younger generation.or even his peers, the senior group.

Right there we pinpoint a major opportunity and responsibility for life after 60.  Instead of conventional productivity we can step instead into RELATIONAL business.  Seniors need to know how much they have to offer the younger generation just in terms of PAYING ATTENTION to them AND SPEAKING CLEAR MESSAGES OF LOVE, ENCOURAGEMENT, SUPPORT AND KINDNESS.  The vibrancy and bravado of youth should not distract us.  And feelings of love are not enough.  POSITIVE WORDS HEAL, LIFT, INSPIRE, STRENGTHEN, IMMUNIZE.  (Do not wait for appreciation, especially with teens.  They can’t send such messages.  KNOW THIS-- WORDS OF LOVE DO GOOD.)
Beyond our own families, here is a second career for all of us.  Sending messages of care and kindness all around.  SHOWING UP!! In tough and painful circumstances next door, across the street, or by phone, mail or internet to hurting strangers).
A valuable gift EVERY SENIOR CARRIES, that absolutely must be given away – especially to our families is OUR STORY.
The following generations needs to hear our story.  NOT ONLY DO THEY NEED TO HEAR IT, WE NEED TO TELL IT.
There is a wonderful healing that happens when we are invited by interested listeners to take all the time we need to share where we’ve been, what we’ve seen, known, experienced, and how we see God in all of it, too.
At the Crystal Cathedral I have nudged story-telling into a variety of classes as part of the process.  Fresh New Hope Telephone Counselors are put through 7 weeks of training, 2-1/2 hours a week.  The last 1-1/2 hours of every session is devoted to listening to each other’s story.  THE TRAINING ITSELF IS EXCELLENT AND INSPIRING.  But almost all cite TELLING THEIR STORY as the highlight.
2.         We include it in NEW MEMBERS classes
3.         We include it in LEAD ELDER TRAINING.
4.         SMALL GROUPS.
5.         FUNERAL PREPARATION

People are longing to be known.  And even though people have worked on councils, committees, teams for decades THEY DO NOT KNOW EACH OTHER’S STORIES.
When we tell our stories to our children, they gain
-          Insights into who they are (identity)
-          What values they’ve inherited
-          What’s important
-          How God uses the “stuff” of life.
·        
When older folks tell their stories THEY COME ALIVE AGAIN.  They gain a sense of completion.  Sometimes telling resolves old conflicts.  Endearment emerges as we see each other as persons.  Share your story !!!

Aging Well Part III


       III.           
BEAUTY AND ATTRACTIVENESS: 

 My friend, Jane Haas, is a small-time TV broadcaster in Orange County.  When I first met her she came across as a bright and engaging older woman.  The next time I saw her in person she appeared 10-15 years younger.  Jane had inherited large folds of skin in her neck – jowls-like.  Well, she’d taken a good bundle of money she’d inherited and with plastic surgery was rejuvenated.  What a gift she gave herself AND THE PUBLIC.
True, God doesn’t look at the outward appearance but at the heart.  BUT PEOPLE DO LOOK AT THE APPEARANCE.
Here, too, a danger lurks for the older –thinking appearances do not matter anymore; becoming care-less about what people think. But that, too, is self-centered.  ATTRACTIVENESS is ANOTHER WONDERFUL GIFT for the younger, and others around us.
-           RISK  -
I met a friend of mine, Moses Yim, age 79, with his grandson, Jon Yim, the other day.  Moses is proud of Jon, age 14, especially his golf game.  “He could have made par the other day,” said Moses, “he was on the green in one and instead of playing cautiously he ‘went for it’ and slid 3 yards past the hole and missed that putt.”  “Good for you, Jon,” I joked.  “When you’re your Grandpa’s age play cautiously but right now go for it!”
“When the attractiveness of safety and security always outweighs the attractiveness of risk and the dangers of risk and the dangers of risk always outweigh the dangers of security we begin to die.”
A couple of years ago I was invited as a clinically trained pastor to take training to be part of teams called to the site of airline crashes to tend to the spiritual needs of survivors and families.  I had to go to Albuquerque for several days and then be on-call two months of the year. I was obliged to drop everything and go for up to a week of orientation and training.
Almost everything in me said “no don't go” but a small voice said I was succumbing to the grip of safety and security too much – so I WENT.
It’s largely an age thing that caused me to hesitate.  I WONDER HOW I’D THINK IF NO ONE EVER DECLARED AGE 65 as the official “hang it up” age. 
I was never so shocked as when a nominee for Elder declined because he was 65  years old.  He was retiring from his job and from work in the church as well.  "Are you kidding?"  I said,  "You are just perfect for Elder work now and you’re quitting"? Older people see far better the deeper issues of life, than do the younger.

Spirituality is NOT ONLY OUR RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD, OUR WALK WITH JESUS and our PRAYER LIFE.  Our whole being requires SPIRIT CARE, SOUL CARE.
If we coast and draft in senior years we may easily DIE physically because of SPIRITUAL NEGLECT.  Spirituality includes relationships, beauty, giving, creativity, growing, meaning and purpose-staying alive nourishes our souls.
-        



Aging in the New Year Part II


                                                                 

Tell Your Story 


Another valuable gift EVERY SENIOR CARRIES that absolutely must be given away – especially to our families is OUR STORY.
The younger generations needs to hear where we have been and what it was like.  NOT ONLY DO THEY NEED TO HEAR IT, WE NEED TO TELL IT.
There is a wonderful healing that happens when we are invited by interested listeners to take all the time we need to share where we’ve been, what we’ve seen, known, experienced, and how we see God in all of it, too.
At the Crystal Cathedral I have nudged story-telling into a variety of classes as part of the process.  As New Hope Telephone Counselors – we put them through 7 weeks of training, 2-1/2 hours a week.  The last 1-1/2 hours of every session is devoted to taking turns listening to another’s story.  THE TRAINING ITSELF IS EXCELLENT AND INSPIRING.  But almost all cite TELLING THEIR STORY as the highlight.
2.         We include it in NEW MEMBERS
3.         We include it in LEAD ELDER TRAINING.
4.         SMALL GROUPS.
5.         FUNERAL PREPARATION

People are longing to be known.  And even though people have worked on councils, committees, teams for decades THEY DO NOT KNOW EACH OTHER’S STORIES.  They know little of their colleagues.
When we tell our stories to our children, they gain
-              >nsights into who they are (identity)
-              >What values they’ve inherited
-              >What’s important
-              >How God uses the “stuff” of life.

W    When the very old tell their stories THEY COME ALIVE AGAIN.  They gain a sense of completion.      Sometimes telling resolves old conflicts.  Endearment emerges as we see each other as persons.

My friend, Marilyn Duff, shared in her story how as a youngster one of her dear sisters died.  Marilyn tells how she consciously observed her mother’s reaction in the coming months and years.  She was going to school, taking lessons about life after tragedy-- and her mother didn’t even know it.  Fortunately, Marilyn says, even shortly after the young girl’s death her mother, every morning, would enter Marilyn’s bedroom with a cheery life-affirming burst of greeting the new day.  And Marilyn noticed and remembered.

A few years ago I was honored to have a book I wrote published.  In the book I tell about the retired minister friend I often visit who, now deceased, taught me a major lesson on SELF-CENTEREDNESS.  My 90% of  Helping is Just Showing Up book was a MAJOR thrill to me.  When I handed the old Pastor one of my very first copies he handled it a minute, glanced at it, set it aside and said “I never published anything".  It was about him

That was typical of our visits and I found it a common pattern.  I have concluded that as we grow older deliberate determination is needed to turn the spotlight off ourselves and on to others.  We must fight hard against self-centeredness.
                                                      

Aging-in the New Year


AGING

Intentional Christian aging is the opposite of slipping, sliding, coasting and idling into Senior years.  That ought to be our agenda as church leaders and Christians.

Much of life is clearly defined – infancy, toddler times, kindergarten, elementary school, high school, college or career, marriage, parenthood, etc. etc.  BUT NOT THE THIRD QUARTER “2nd ½” or 4th Quarter of adult life.  We have few models and little written directions for these years.  This is called “Cultural Lag”.  Something has happened SO FAST, SO NEW, SO DIFFERENT we lack traditions, patterns, guidelines about how to live with 1/3 of our life, 30 years, open after age 65.

My father, who died at age 98, must have done something right to be the sole survivor of  8 younger siblings.  Nevertheless he was absolutely ill-equipped for all those extra years.  He was a preacher!  That’s all he did and that is all he planned to do.  But a small stroke a dozen years ago impaired his speech, not his mind, and since that happened there was little on his menu of activities.  What he could do, the powerfully important role open to most older folks, he did little of – THAT IS, BLESS HIS CHILDREN, HIS GRANDCHILDREN, HIS GREAT GRANDCHILDREN!!  AND OTHER PEOPLE’S TOO!!

By nature or training, my dad, while a wonderful, generous, caring person did not know how to concentrate his energies on giving encouragement, support, words of love, show interest, give pats on the back, to a large group of younger folks, ages infant to senior citizens.

Right there we pinpoint a major opportunity and responsibility for life after 60.  Instead of conventional productivity we can step into RELATIONAL business.  Seniors need to realize how much they have to offer the younger generation--- just in terms of PAYING ATTENTION to them AND SPEAKING CLEAR MESSAGES OF LOVE, ENCOURAGEMENT, SUPPORT AND KINDNESS.  The vibrancy and bravado of youth should not distract us.  

Feelings of love are not enough.  POSITIVE WORDS HEAL, LIFT, INSPIRE, STRENGTHEN, IMMUNIZE.   KNOW THAT WORDS OF LOVE DO GOOD.  THEY ARE MEDICINE FOR THE SOUL.
Here is a second career for all of us.  It is sending messages of care and kindness all around by  SHOWING UP!! In tough and painful circumstances next door, across the street, or by phone, mail or internet to hurting strangers.  (90% OR MORE IS JUST SHOWING UP).