Episode S4E12: The Gift of Age: Discovering Spiritual Underpinnings of Servant- hearted Seniority

Aging is a gift. Yet, many of us may not think that way. Typically, our culture speaks of aging in a negative way, and too often we ourselves think of aging in the same negative ways. God disagrees. Scripture speaks of aging positive ways. Listen to Randy thinking about aging as “A way journey to purpose, peace, and joy.”

Transcript

Dr Hal Habecker: 0:00

Music. Welcome to the finish and well podcast where we encourage seasoned believers to find meaningful ways to impact their world for the kingdom of God, whether you're 65 and up or not quite there. Yet, our mission is to prepare and encourage every person to finish well. Our prayer is that this podcast will encourage and strengthen you to glorify Christ as we intentionally engage our aging fears. Well, welcome finishing well, podcast listeners out there. My name is Hal habecker, and I'm here with a close friend who you will remember. You can't forget him, Randy. Hess, you know, just a few words. You know, we have done 22,000 downloads on our podcast. This is actually our fifth year, and you Randy, helped launch this whole thing. That's amazing

Dr Randy Hess: 1:01

how

Dr Hal Habecker: 1:02

it is whoever dreamt, oh my gosh, God has honored it. We have downloads from every continent in the world, and it's just only expanding. And what our purpose is is to share life in our aging years. You know, you've heard my wife, you've heard other people. We had a recent podcast on friendship, all kinds of things we're going to do, one on worship and aging in the near future, but just a lot of things, talking about how God works in our life as we age. He

Dr Randy Hess: 1:34

does. He does. That's part of our actual podcast today, how it's amazing. Well, it's, I'll talk a little personal about it, but that's the theme. Well, let's jump in.

Dr Hal Habecker: 1:45

You have a I'm looking at a page here called the gift of age. So let's launch in. Randy, welcome back. You're awesome.

Dr Randy Hess: 1:52

Thank you, Hal. It's good to be back. And just so everybody knows, I've been on a little sabbatical taking care of personal things and actually improving health, which is one of the things that we probably driven you crazy about in the past, talking about the need to maintain your health as best you can, whatever stage you're in, in that, and that's what I've been trying to do, because if we don't do that, it's really hard To think about helping other people

Dr Hal Habecker: 2:21

really is listening to your life, listening to yourself, listening to the body that God gave you and the needs around you in your family. Whether you've been through a lot of grief, you have health issues, you

Dr Randy Hess: 2:33

gotta, you gotta take care of it. Hal and we, you know the proverbial, you know, put on your mask if there's a problem with the plane before you can help anybody else sitting around. You're exactly

Dr Hal Habecker: 2:43

right. It's like my friend David Allen says, You got to be a missionary to yourself, or you're no good to anybody else. And if you don't,

Dr Randy Hess: 2:49

if you're not aware of that, it really hurts, how it hurts you and it hurts other people. So I've been trying to tend to things. They haven't been life changing things, but they've been aggravating things and stuff that I needed to do, and I used to get mad at myself or get frustrated with myself to do those now I don't apologize, I actually do it and don't get frustrated. So I think that's a growth in the Lord is helping me kind of with that little bit of personal growth. Well,

Dr Hal Habecker: 3:20

what's on your mind today? Well, we talked about a couple of ideas

Dr Randy Hess: 3:24

for a podcast that we wanted to do that that you said, Yeah, let's let's do them. And I thought of something that has been on my mind that I did while I was kind of in the last few months of sabbatical, about what it means to age, how? Now that's a big, big question, of course, but everybody listening to us, if they're not there yet, they will be soon, thinking about, what is it? What does that mean as I age? How should I look at this? Should I look at it as a big, big downer, a big, big negative, no, a big, big restriction. Or should I look at it as an opportunity and a blessing to me? So that's why I put down here the gift of age. How, if we look at aging as a gift, we've got to be thinking about something like, what's the gift? What have I gotten out of aging? And so I'd like to speak to that. If you don't mind, let me just jump in a little bit go. So I'm gonna just label, other than the gift of age, a process that you go through with this gift of age, and that is, I've labeled a journey to maturity. My journey through life has included some key questions for me that may or may not be, some that you've had about yourself. Let's just start with the basic why was I put here? I. Why am I here? What am I to do about why I'm here? How can I do that, and how can I know it's right? Those are it? How? Great questions, big questions, often with tough answer or little little guidance for for for us, if we just treat it at a superficial level, we never figure it out. We have two certainties, though, that go with these questions. I will, if it's God's will get older, so if I start thinking about this at age 21 I'll get older. If I start thinking about it at age 61 I'm going to get older if it's God's will. If I start thinking about it at 91 I'm still going to get older if it's God's will,

Dr Hal Habecker: 6:04

but if you're if you're here, it is God's will. You know, you recognize why you're here. That's the important issue. Isn't

Dr Randy Hess: 6:12

that interesting? If you don't recognize that, where, what are you thinking about? Well anyway, the second thing that's a certainty, as I will die according to God's timetable. So in thinking about those two things, my journey of basic core questions and my certainties, I feel that there are three needs I have, growing physically, growing mentally and growing spiritually. In order for me to do those and maintain those, well, that's the word. In order for me to keep growing, I have to maintain some things too. I have to maintain my capabilities physically as best I can. I have to maintain my mental capacities as best I can. And I have to also how Be aware that I need to do some things. If it's maintenance, you can call it that. But I need to do some things spiritually to figure out if I'm growing or not and be feeling grateful and blessed if I realize I have been

Dr Hal Habecker: 7:31

those are really important insights. Randy,

Dr Randy Hess: 7:34

so the gift of age, how is a bit about my journey to maturity. That's all it is. So I'm going to go through it quick, and then maybe we can talk a minute about what I was thinking, you know, at an early stage of my life, the the so I'll use a phrase here to give you a few stages in an earlier life. I cry out to God about these questions, what am I really all about? Why am I here? I don't see an answer on a billboard right in front of me. Why not so? Psalm 57 two says I cry out to God, Most High, who fulfills His purpose for me. Wow. So think of that, if I cry out, I know that I'm crying out that God is going to fulfill a purpose. So that's a little bit of you want to call that an introductory encouragement to my to my whatever it is, scream, yell, cry out. Then, as I build my journey to maturity, how going from an immature Baby Christian that has a superficial understanding, at least, but it's a really good one that God loves me. It is I move on from that.

Dr Hal Habecker: 9:11

But by the way, let me stop for a second. We don't ever stop crying out to God, do we? I mean, if you read the Psalms, that's where this psalm comes from, from the mouth of David. You know, he cried out to God when he fought Goliath, help me. I come you come to me with a sword and spear, but I come to you in the name of the living God, cry out to God and help me. But he's doing that, and we do that in our aging we do.

Dr Randy Hess: 9:32

We do cry out. We need to cry out. We do because God is what we really have. We don't have anything else that.

Dr Hal Habecker: 9:40

Anyway, exactly right. Go on.

Dr Randy Hess: 9:43

So as I matured, how this is Randy's journey, I became aware of some things, and I'm going to go through them. The awareness is that God knew me before I was born, while I was still in my mother's womb. God. And fore knew me, Romans, 829, for those God foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, and that's being an image bearer of Jesus is a big deal. Boy, it helps to know that that'd be the biggest deal. It is the biggest deal, isn't it, in terms of basic questions, it is the biggest deal. So that helps a ton for the baby Christian or the growing Christian. And so the being being conformed to the image of His son that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters that was Jesus is the firstborn woman. Yes, he was, and there are many brothers and sisters. We're Brothers And we're it. We're part of that, aren't we?

Dr Hal Habecker: 11:08

Yep, he's the head of our family.

Dr Randy Hess: 11:12

I matured a little more, I think you'd say, in realizing that he has numbered my days. That's a quick phrase, but if you think about it, it's a big deal, a very big deal. It doesn't have to scare you, it doesn't have to alarm you, it doesn't have to actually do much of anything to you. But if you reflect on it, what you realize is, I don't need to worry about, I don't need to think a lot of if he is going to bring me home, he'll do it on his timetable, and just so in the meantime, you know, get busy recognizing some other Things don't set twiddling your thumbs. So I guess I'm not saying that there's pressure in that. I'm just saying I hope there's life goals in that. Life goals and family goals, important goals that you set for yourself, whether you tell anybody else about them or not, that there's some things that I think I could do in being productive that would be meaningful to other people, would be honoring God and maybe be helpful to me.

Dr Hal Habecker: 12:33

I agree. I agree.

Dr Randy Hess: 12:37

I get to the point then when I recognize that while God isn't, at least there for me. He loves me. I think the personal relationship with him at a very close level doesn't always come right away. For some people, it didn't come that way. For me, it took a while. I I knew there was God, and I knew he had my back, but I didn't have the close personal relationship, but when I got to that in my life, I knew that he would be there at a deeper level, because the Word says he stands at my door and knocks. So that's kind of important phrase for me.

Dr Hal Habecker: 13:27

I will come into him and have dinner with him, fellowship. That's the next step. Yeah, he

Dr Randy Hess: 13:33

comes in and dines with me as I open that door. So not only, not only can I pray to Him and He will answer my prayer or let me know something through the Holy Spirit about where I'm going, he will make me feel like A whole new person, a much more joyful person, a much more fulfilled person than I've ever been, and I didn't even know it could happen.

Dr Hal Habecker: 14:11

I think that's exactly what Robert Browning means in that line. The best is yet to be there's something that happens. It's

Dr Randy Hess: 14:18

not about accomplishing more, than a house. No, it's not about building your house bigger. It's about opening the door back again to Jesus, making it a two way door here that his relationship with you at a personal level, makes you more comfortable and more joyful than you've ever been. You were missing that, dude, you were missing it.

Dr Hal Habecker: 14:51

Anyway. Yeah, keep going.

Dr Randy Hess: 14:55

So being that new, shall we say, somewhat. But somewhat, I hate to call these stages, because they're not but for me, they were kind of developmental steps. Then I think what I would like to summarize for me is that after he comes in and dines with me, and I have this feeling of a personal friend that really loves me with all of my warts,

Dr Hal Habecker: 15:36

he really does with all of

Dr Randy Hess: 15:38

my warts, he loves me and I he's never going to forsake me, never going to let me go, never then I begin to live. To live is Christ. To live, is Christ, and that is Philippians, 121 for to me to live is Christ, and the last part of that, after, well, I'll say the last part of that for just a minute, but to live is Christ, And in my more elderly years, where I keep dialing back to my purpose. I'm I'm no longer connected directly to work goals. I'm no longer connected directly to all the work friends. I'm no longer connected directly, maybe because of health or whatever, to my hobbies and sports or hobbies, whatever music, music, whatever it is, at the same way I was before. I'm no longer as active. I I'm more independent. I've got no one necessarily needing to connect with me today or tomorrow, in that in that role, I still then begin how to see those questions emerging from the very beginning of, why am I here? What is my purpose? I need to be reinforced. And you know what? He does it. He fulfills His purpose for me. Psalm 57, two, I cry out to God, Most High, fulfills His purpose for me. So I know I don't have to sit around worrying about it. I'm going to ask for his superintendents over me, but I'm going to seek to fulfill his fulfill my purpose, which is His purpose for me,

Dr Hal Habecker: 17:53

the reality of that he has a purpose in our aging years, wherever you're at, whether you're 7181 91, or 101 says 21 yes.

Dr Randy Hess: 18:05

Jeremiah, 2911 which is one of our favorites, For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans to prosper you and not to harm you. Plans to give you hope and a future. Well, okay, if I'm 91 How long is that future? How? It doesn't matter.

Dr Hal Habecker: 18:26

You're right. It doesn't matter. It could be another day.

Dr Randy Hess: 18:31

But I've got hope in that another day.

Dr Hal Habecker: 18:33

Psalm, 118, 24, this is the day the Lord has made for you at 91 at 101 whatever that next day is, he has a purpose and a plan in it for us to be with him.

Dr Randy Hess: 18:49

It's very gratifying to me, very encouraging to know that that whole thing, though, the Lord, has told us that he's thought about us even in our aging years. Wow.

Dr Hal Habecker: 19:04

He values us highly.

Dr Randy Hess: 19:07

So I shouldn't just sit there Hal thinking, guys, I'm way past my prime here. I need to just, you know, I need to move on. I don't like the aches and pains. I don't like the weekly medical visits. I don't like the procedures and process I have to go through. I'm tired of it. I'm ready, Lord, I'm ready to move on. If you're still here, and if you've got the capability to think about, to communicate, to think about other people, to communicate and to reach out. He's got you here for a purpose, and you'd be surprised if you just reach out with a text or something like that. It to your grandchild what a difference that might make in their life.

Dr Hal Habecker: 20:09

I had a conversation yesterday with a friend. He sends a text to each one of his grandkids and his grown kids every day. It may be a humorous deal. Maybe a birth, a Bible verse or whatever, but he's connecting with them, and that's part of his purpose as a parent and grandparent.

Dr Randy Hess: 20:29

I mean, it's a very good ministry. It's an excellent ministry. How? I don't do that, but I do reach out, and I usually get a response.

Dr Hal Habecker: 20:40

It's awesome, isn't it? It is, but it's this is what Randy. What you're talking about is how we grow. You know, our culture says at a certain place in life, your life is diminished and diminishing. What you're saying is that that's not true.

Dr Randy Hess: 21:01

It's not because you have to recognize the stage you're in or the level of maturity you have gained, and then in so doing, the Lord is taking care of you at whatever level that is. But you have, you still have the ability to reach out in prayer however you want to do it. Just say, Lord, help me fortify my purpose. I know I've got it. I know. I know you want me to recognize it. I know I've got it. So just help me. Fortify it. Help me. And what you're telling me is, don't just sit on my duff and not do anything. You're telling me. Try some things. Try some things. What's the harm in trying? Well, gee, that's a risk. I'll take it. Gee, I'm fearful that it won't work. Do it anyway. I think that's the Lord's message to us. I got your back. You've got to take the steps forward. So when he opens the door, there's also room for you to walk through and do some things.

Dr Hal Habecker: 22:12

I think of John 15 five. You and I've been through this without me. You can do nothing. Jesus said that

Dr Randy Hess: 22:19

with me, yes, with me, you can do a lot.

Dr Hal Habecker: 22:23

So you may be going through a trial, but remember that Jesus wants you to get through it. He's in there with you, having creating that intimacy. Yeah, I was just reading this morning the life of job. I mean, we will go through trials in life as long as we live. It's a part of life. But in the midst of whatever we're going through, we're crying out to God, I mean, and that's this process. You cry out. You realize he knows you. My life is in His hands. He's numbered everything he wants. Intimacy with Me. He dines with me. It gives me a purpose for living. To for me to live, is Christ every day, whatever our age, wherever we're at in that spectrum, he has a purpose in life for me, and in the end, all of that is gain.

Dr Randy Hess: 23:12

That's the final for me, point of my journey, so to speak, in maturity, is living as Christ helps me find joy on Earth, helps me find fulfillment on Earth, especially knowing that he fulfills my purpose and I don't need to sweat that I don't need to bend myself like a pretzel. Just go do try some things and try some things that I like to do. Try, you know, try stuff. And if I don't like to talk to my own family, find friends to talk to, find somebody that you are comfortable with. That's the point. Try some stuff. I've got your back. You're going to be fine. You know, a

Dr Hal Habecker: 24:06

verse that really stands out to me on this is that there's a little phrase in Acts 1037, might be verse 38 one of those two, Luke, in describing Jesus, simply says he went about doing good. So at your age, his purpose for you is to do good in the midst of your struggle, do good in the midst of your hardship and rest in Him. And we are we

Dr Randy Hess: 24:32

are talking about reaching out with a purpose, whether you think of it as a purpose or not, to pay attention to people who might could use some encouragement, might could use some help in some kind Yeah, that's what we're saying. So that's going to take discernment, if you want to use that word, but it's just going to take open eyes and ears, how so at the end of that, I then know that to encapsulate my. Life, My end of life is gain. Again, back to Philippians, 121 for to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain. Man. When I first read that, or first 100 times I've read that, I thought, What? What is he saying? What is he saying? And then I again, my maturity, slow as it was, I see the tremendous impact of just that phrase, that that scripture, that God is saying to me, relax, enjoy the ride. Don't be absent. Don't be you know, a potted plant, don't be afraid of extending yourself, myself to others, even if I'm not necessarily knowing which way it's going to go, and even if I'm not sure that I can do anything about it, the Lord has my back and knows what I'm doing, and He'll guide me. And if I need to walk away from that effort, I can do it.

Dr Hal Habecker: 26:29

I think of another image as we wrap this up. You have often used the image of we're in the arena, we're not in the grandstands, we're down on the playing field, and you're in the playing field, wherever you are in this aging process, whether you're 21 or 91

Dr Randy Hess: 26:47

if you turn it over to the Lord and yet, do what He asks you, which is to try,

Dr Hal Habecker: 26:56

yeah. Keep crying out to Him, God. Keep crying out. But keep your ears

Dr Randy Hess: 26:59

and eyes. Keep the keep your senses open to that message that maybe ought to think about this, or maybe you ought to try that, or maybe you ought to reach out to X or Y or Z, yes, with an open heart, he's asking you to get on the playing field. But guess what? On the playing field, there's no rocker chairs.

Dr Hal Habecker: 27:23

You're exactly right. Wrapping this up, let me say this, you know, I'm applying this to your listeners. I don't know what your age is, where you're at, but these podcasts are kind of a journey that we talk about in our aging years and developing friendships, and talking about this process, where are we and how are we growing in these years, and what does God call us to do? And that's that's what we're talking about. That's what we've talked about. So I envision conversations going all over, in churches, in your family, wherever you're at, talking about this process of aging well and what God is doing.

Dr Randy Hess: 28:07

And the easiest journey is to deeply involve God in your aging process. Easiest journey without that, the journey might be bumpy. Might be bumpy. So be encouraged, you know, start earlier than I did, and start talking to God and start, start getting some answers to your questions. But don't be reticent after you're retired or when you've got the time, when you got the still got the energy. And our our bias, by the way, and in this ministry, is you have some kind of energy to do that to the very end,

Dr Hal Habecker: 29:06

and that's what we're about finishing. Well, ministries, it might be tough.

Dr Randy Hess: 29:10

We all know people near their end. It's, it's a it's a weaker position. Of course, your body just begins to dial out. But in all that, you can still reach out and love people.

Dr Hal Habecker: 29:25

You're exactly right. Thanks Randy for this discussion. I hope it's an encouragement to every listener out there, wherever our age, to be a part of the process of God's work in our life and accomplishing His purpose. So thanks, God bless you all. And let's keep for me to live as Christ in every aspect of life and to die is gain. God bless you, and thanks for being with us today. God bless Thank you for listening to this finish and well podcast. Podcast. We hope you were encouraged by today's conversation and living out your God given purpose. Subscribe to the show wherever you get your podcasts, or you can find us at finishing well ministries, dot, O, R, G, forward, slash. Podcast, if you have a question, a comment or a suggestion or an idea, send a note to me how@finishingwellministries.org check out our website and our vision to change the way we think about our aging season of life. Go to finishingwellministries.org and visit our website. We'll see you next time, and may the word bless and encourage you.