My Search For Wisdom

It took a while to work out the kinks this morning. Somehow the usual stretching exercises didn't quite take the pains out of my lower back. People my age understand that. The rest of you don't. Besides, I talked with my grandson last night. He's all excited about the amount of snow on the mountains outside our Colorado retreat home and looking forward to the annual Christmas ski vacation with the family. The way my back feels this morning, I'm thinking my downhill skiing days may be over.

And so . . . inevitably I get to thinking about old age. What a topic. I try to avoid it at every turn, but it keeps coming back in the most unexpected ways. Some thoughts about old age floating about:

* Old age is when former classmates are so gray and wrinkled and bald, they don't recognize you.

*Why you age is up to nature. How you age is up to you.

*Optimists age like wine. Pessimists age like milk.

*When you are dissatisfied and would like to go back to your youth.... Remember about Algebra.

*Some people try to turn back their odometers. Not me, I want people to know "why" I look this way. I've traveled a long way and some of the roads weren't paved.

These days commercials bombard us for products and procedures in response to the physical ravages of old age: denture and face creams, adult diapers and hair coloring, tummy tucks and exercise programs. They're all intended to make us seniors “look and feel younger.” According to these ads looking “old” is unacceptable.

Looking young is a multi-billion-dollar industry. Ageism is not only directed at today’s old, but also at the old of tomorrow. Growing old is stereotyped as the enemy we have to head off at the pass. On top of that we hear a constant drum beat that the “baby boomers” — the next generation of old persons — are about to overwhelm society’s health care and retirement systems and break the federal budget, causing massive reductions in spending for other legitimate needs.

Does all this mean that anyone who belongs to AARP and gets senior privileges at the movies is actually of less value to society, their families and to themselves? I certainly hope not, even if that is the underlying message.

I prefer to believe that with old age comes many positives, especially the lived experiences and perspectives that are referred to as wisdom. Wisdom is in short shrift, even as it has always been.

The search for wisdom got all messed up right at the beginning when our first parents tried to be like God:

"For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil. When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it," Genesis 3:5,6.

Moses had it right when he taught us to pray: "Lord, teach us to number our days aright, that we may gain a heart of wisdom," Psalm 90:12.

Whence such wisdom? The ancient, oft-heard answer: "The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom; all who follow his precepts have good understanding. To him belongs eternal praise," Psalm 111:10.

In this case 'fear' refers to reverence, respect and awe, as well as dread. The real joy is to know that this LORD who teaches us wisdom is the One who became a Child, dwelling among us in order to assume our guilt, foolishness and suffering. The Apostle put it like this:

"For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel—not with words of human wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power. For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written:
'I will destroy the wisdom of the wise;
the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate.'" (1 Corinthians 1:17-19)

Someone once asked, What do you get when you cross a Lutheran and a Buddhist?
      Someone who sits up all night worrying about nothing.

I've decided not to mix my Lutheranism with any other faith or with the wisdom of this world. This day I will return to the ageless and eternal LORD in whose hands I reside, young or old. That's at least the beginning of wisdom, even if I still don't have much of it.