July 20, 2010: In Praise Of Old Christians Every other Thursday I go to a nursing home to help out with a chapel service that my church conducts. The old people there (ladies, mostly, because they live longer than men) are wonderful. They love to sing and worship God, and somehow they remain attentive to Bible preaching despite the fact that they've probably heard thousands of sermons over the years - and you'd certainly understand it if they were sick of them by now. The affection they show me is effusive and palpable, and they kindly appreciate everything our little group does for them. Every other Friday I join in fellowship with a small group, half of whose members are north of 70. They are great, all of them: kind, loyal, disciplined children of God who go on adding decade to decade of faithful service to their King. Though I myself am technically past middle-age (family history suggests I won't live to 94), some of these folks have been walking with Christ since before I was born. It is an honor to worship with them, and learn from them, and hear them pray for me. And about twice a month I meet for lunch with a retired couple, Ed and Nereida Chapman, whose Christ-like encouragement to me over the past few years has been a gift of grace straight from the throne of God. I have a special reason for loving old Christians. The joy I receive from their patient endurance soothes the sorrow I've known from apostate friends who have left the faith. The steadfastness of gray-headed saints rebukes the cynicism that darkens my soul when I question the durability of young converts. Do I dare tell you how cynical I've become? When baptizing earnest 14-year-old girls the thought crosses my mind, "Yes, you love Jesus now, but in 10 years you'll be living with your boyfriend (or lesbian partner), getting drunk at parties, shunning the church, and showing no regard at all for the Savior who bled and died for you." That's terribly unfair, of course - but it is a suspicion born of sad experience. Katy Perry - for example - a pop singer who extols all manner of fornication, started out as a teenager singing songs of praise to Jesus. There are plenty like her. There are also plenty of youth like the teenage boy I baptized who, in just a couple years, was spouting atheism and getting arrested. I can remember when Andre Agassi, Gary Bussey, Mike Ditka, Bob Dylan, Larry Flynt, Horace Grant, John Lennon, BJ Thomas and Chris Webber were all born-again Christians. They dipped their toes in the pool of Christianity, maybe even jumped in and swam a bit, and then got out and toweled off. We naive Christians rejoiced for a time to see such star power join us, and some of us stupidly thought we could use their worldly influence to grow God's spiritual kingdom. But they decided not to age gracefully with us under the care of Christ. Contrast the legions of those who "experiment" temporarily with Christian faith to the martyr Polycarp, who, when called to recant in AD 155, said, "Eighty-six years I have served Christ, and he never did me any wrong. How can I blaspheme my King who saved me?" Eighty-six years! And who knows how many more years there would have been had he not, in the next moment, been burned at the stake? Or contrast fallen apostates with my mother, who gave her life to the Lord around the age of 10 and, as she lay dying at 76, asked for a cross that she could clutch in her hand while she waited to be ushered into the presence of God. Among her last words to her pastor: "My hope is in Christ." When sweet Lisa Krausfeldt agreed to marry me about a year ago I emailed her the opening lines of Robert Browning's "Rabbi Ben Ezra": Grow old along with me! The best is yet to be, The last of life, for which the first was made: Our times are in his hand Who saith, "A whole I planned, Youth shows but half; trust God: see all, nor be afraid!" You who have been followers of Christ with me for 40 years or less may only be half way through this our (earthly) journey. Grow in grace along with me. If the Lord tarries and you do not die, then be an old, feeble, sick, forgetful, dependent - yet still faithful - servant of Christ. Be an inspiration and not a byword. Join the ranks of those I love who demonstrate how to walk the path all the way to the end.