We Have Met the Enemy, and He is All Three of Us!

Have you ever noticed how quick we are to point out the faults of others, and how slow to admit our share of the blame for what's wrong in today's culture?

Take traffic for example. We readily complain about traffic when caught in a traffic jam. Do we realize that we are the traffic everyone else is complaining about?

And, it has become way too predictable on Capitol Hill. Republicans rant about Democrats, and Democrats rant about Republicans. The blame always seems to rest outside of ourselves.

My father-in-law, Don Popineau, was a residential house painter and an active deacon in his church before becoming an ordained minister in his early fifties. He jokingly told a group of pastors, "I've only been a pastor for three weeks, and already I hate deacons!"

Okay, so where are we headed with this conversation?

Approaching the end of our seventh year with YES! Young Enough to Serve, we've heard our share of rants about tech-tethered teens, not-so-sacred worship, theatre-like sanctuaries, and even about hipster pastors dressed in jeans, seemingly siding with the young while snubbing the old.

But let's take our punching gloves off for a moment and yank at the plank in our own eyes. Hitting the pause button on our rants, let's assume (or pretend) that WE in life's second half are our own worst enemy . . . all three of us: Me, myself, and I.

It's hard and out-of-character, I know, but we can do this!

“How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye?”

— Matthew 7:4

Enemy #1: ME-Mastered Retirement

We live in a nation that nourishes an entitlement perspective regarding vocational retirement---usually in our sixties, followed optionally by a life of leisure. Some ask, "Is retirement even biblical?"

Well, retirement shows up in just one verse, Numbers 8:25, where the Levites had to retire at age fifty. (Whew! . . . a big sigh of relief from those of you who are vocationally retired!) 

While vocational retirement is not taboo in Scripture, it gets very little press.

What is not supported biblically is spiritual retirement, freedom that becomes lazy or self-absorbed, or personal identity grounded in retirement. Not a single verse or chapter support that kind of retirement!

renewing purpose

Let's face it, retirement sounds a bit tired, and it's a lonely word in Scripture. Pop the word 'renew' in your Bible search engine, and you'll find it's much more popular and life-breathing!

We're called to liberty and renewal. Through love we get to serve one another---often even more when the eight-to-five grind ends.

Enemy #2: MYSELF-Mirrored Segregation

This enemy highlights how generationally isolated we've allowed older adults to become in our culture---and sometimes even more so in our churches.

Year-after-year we grow comfortable peer-to-peer, but too often miss out on relationships from generation-to-generation.

We're disturbed by the cocoon or silo approach we find ourselves in, often a picture of only older adults caring about older adults. Are we going to settle for being an amputated body part? (We can't change what we're resigned to tolerate.)

From Paul's teaching in 1 Corinthians 12, the whole body needs to show concern for each part, and each part needs to show concern for the whole body. The head cannot say to the foot, "I have no need of you."

Paradigms need to shift to re-align with Scripture. It's not just about becoming more culturally relevant, attractive and creative. These are byproducts of love flowing in a healthy way from generation to generation (in both directions!). The Bible makes it clear that God wants more than each generation fending for themselves.

Specialized life stage ministries have value, but peer-only approaches leave us with huge generational gaps, nonstick faith as students graduate from high school, and Teflon-coated church attendance as parents become empty nesters.

energizing hearts

We can move some hearts and change some lives peer-to-peer. But to really change a paradigm, we need reinforcements from outside that paradigm: younger generations, saints cheering us on from heaven, and, of course, the Holy Spirit.

We handicap ourselves when we ignore the help of younger, more energetic hearts and minds, along with wisdom from the great cloud of witnesses who have gone on before us. Included in that cloud are poignant examples of the older Paul collaborating with the younger Timothy and Titus.

Helping churches build leadership teams with a broader age swath is a good starting point to combat enemy #2. YES! would love to help you broaden your team.

Enemy #3: I-Centered Salvation

Salvation from sin and the personal promise of eternal life are incredible. You and I as individuals are valued tremendously by God. The Father sent His only Son to redeem us.

But this wonderful redemption plan wasn't intended to stop with just us. We've been redeemed so that we might reach others.

Most American Christians admit to passing up the multiplication tables, opting for a quieter, noncontagious faith. For older, mature Christians who have experienced God's faithfulness over a lifetime, what a travesty when our light is hidden!

redeeming lives

If we're well grounded but not making disciples, what can we do?

One approach is conveniently convincing ourselves that evangelism and disciple-making are outside our wheelhouse of giftedness.

Another ill-advised approach involves beating ourselves up to the point where we add discouragement, guilt and timidity to our ineffectiveness.

The better approach is confessing our sin and asking God to help us become bolder and more deliberate in helping others in their faith journey. Then we look for situations where we can connect with those who are:

• without faith,
• new or weak in their faith,
• or lost in a faith without Christ.

Jesus needed to be around people like this in His life here on earth. We need these people in our lives too.

Candles lit only in bright sunlight make little sense. You are still young enough and bright enough to light up a dark room!

Me, Myself and I

So there you have it. Three temptations 'me, myself and I' might encounter in life's second half: becoming too retired, segregated or noncontagious.

A year ago most of us were blissfully unaware of Ebola and ISIS. They have since become familiar, formidable foes. Apart from praying, though, most of us will at best offer indirect help to those combatting these horrific enemies directly.

But with God on our side we can wage war directly with 'me, myself and I'. We know this enemy inside and out. And this too is a battle we must win!

“Lord, please penetrate our hearts and help us take the steps we need to move beyond ourselves—-so that our lives and the lives of others will be made whole. Amen.”

There's Gold in Them Thar Culls

Do you know what culls are? Do you know how valuable they can become?

While serving with a YES! team at Gleanings for the Hungry in Dinuba, California earlier this year, I had the privilege of connecting with local farmer Gordon Wiebe to glean from his inside perspective of the summer gleaning operation.

In Gleanings’ winter season we package dried soup mix, which is not technically a gleaning process. But as Gordon described summer and peaches, I couldn’t help but visualize winter and the older adults who come to serve during this season.

He shared that most of the fruit comes into Gleanings from packing houses, not directly from fields.

The fruit is bruised, scarred, blemished, hail damaged, in odd shapes and sizes, overly ripe, or with split pits—but not spoiled.

CULLS

People outside the farming community frequently use the word ‘seconds’ to describe this fruit, but farmers refer to them as CULLS.

Something culled is picked out and set aside. Culls are not inherently inferior or less nutritious on the inside. But packing houses won’t send them to market because of their size, blemishes, or stage of ripeness and because people shop with their eyes.

Gordon went on to say that our eyes often fool us. The best-looking, marketable fruit may or may not be the best tasting or most nutritious.

Gleanings is all about giving fruit a second chance, and summer volunteers can attest there is quite a production redeeming the peaches, eventually sent out as dried fruit.

Because of what happens to the fruit at Gleanings, it lasts longer, travels much farther, and helps meet deeper needs both physically and spiritually than shelf-ready fruit. (The exported food is always tied to proclamation of the Gospel. And in the end, food from Gleanings is consumed by hungry people who appreciate it more than we can imagine.)

When a shipment of very mature, overripe peaches arrives, Gleanings makes sure the volunteers and conveyor belts shift into high gear. If this fruit sits idle, it will quickly become mushy and unusable for the purposes intended.

HOPE FOR THE OVERLY RIPE

What wonderful parallels to our YES! team and other ‘overly ripe’ individuals serving with us. Our colorful crate of culls---up to 86 years ripe, some with canes, limited sight, special needs, physical challenges, and even split in-the-pit relationships---prepared two million servings of soup for shipment and made thirty quilts in the four and a half days we served!

In these later years of life, we do at times get set apart because we’re not shelf-ready in the eyes of consumers.

For a moment I am tempted to mutter, “Those stupid consumers who shop with their eyes!”---but then I catch myself, knowing that I’m often in that swarm of shallow shoppers.

I'm convinced that we're often too quick to slap on the 'ageism' label. Could it just be a reality of the aging process, a season when God is eager to redirect our path? Is He wanting to open our eyes to value not immediately recognized by American consumers? Value that we ourselves might have skipped over in earlier years?

The labels of 'old', 'senior', and 'elderly' do not in themselves constitute ageism—in fact, many cultures certify these crates with special seals of honor, lush with value and respect. The trouble comes when we make the wrong assumptions about these 'Son-kissed' brands. We can waste energy meticulously trying to peel labels off the skin of these succulent peaches—or we can embrace what's inside for all they're worth!

Our challenge is helping seasoned adults and leaders understand that we’ve been set aside for greater purpose, not uselessness. And we must be willing to subject ourselves to the sometimes painful pruning process—renewing our minds so that our full spiritual-fruitfulness potential can be gleaned. As this city kid learned from Farmer Gordon and Gleanings, there is a world of difference between 'CULL' and 'NULL'!

Our scrappy YES! Young Enough to Serve team from a dozen different churches returned to our dozen different packing houses with a renewed sense of our current value in God's economy and of our continuing, far-reaching potential—in spite of hail damage we've experienced along the way! And we pray this renewed spiritual vision multiplies, as we probe beneath the surface and recognize previously undiscovered potential in others.

We are not ‘seconds.’ We are culls. Culled by God for a greater purpose.

Jesus knows rejection. He knows overlooked value. And He knows how to inject culls with renewed value and purpose. Thanks for CULL-laborating with us toward fruitfulness!

Dancing on Eggshells

Do you ever feel like you’re walking on eggshells?

Please know that you are not alone.

We talk negatively about politicians and ‘political correctness’, but we have our own correctness versions in the church/ministry world. We know that we come across overly passionate to some people, and we’re probably too tame for others.

The temptation is to find some ‘happy medium’ sweet spot. That might be easier but also more boring and predictable. Paul, John and other New Testament writers had unique messages for each church.

We know we don’t always get it right, but a key is praying---not just for the right words but for the right tone, temperament and attitude as we try to convey the truths the Lord is showing us from His Word.

Another key is listening. One of the huge benefits of spending more than a weekend at a church is the privilege of hearing more of their heart, passion, and heartaches. Sometimes a quieter pace, without a microphone in our hand, adds such needed texture and perspective.

Since July of last year we have immersed ourselves in three separate churches for periods of just under four weeks. Each church was unique and special. We learned from each setting and hopefully left some Jesus-shaped footprints behind us.

In our American church culture most of us have fairly short encounters with missionaries, catching a glimpse of their passion through short presentations, sermons and perhaps some conversation at a booth or table after the service. The mission is elsewhere, and they invite you to prayerfully and financially support the outreach to which God has called them.

But our mission is moving older Christians, including ourselves, from our comfort zones and into serving arenas we hadn’t necessarily considered before.

Here’s where the music kicks in for the eggshell dance. We’re messing with people’s sense of entitlement and pre-conceived notions of what retirement is all about. (And we’re not even there yet!)

Could you please pray with us and for us that the Lord will continue to give us boldness, compassion and God-ordained direction?

Thank you from the bottom of our hearts and from the bottom of our feet---plastered with eggshells!