My flesh and my heart may fail, but...

Thorwald Lorenzen

I would like to salute the older people in our church. They provide wisdom, substance and continuity in the discontinuity of times.

Getting older comes to all of us. It is part of being human. It is a fact and it is a challenge.

Between birth and death there are a number of stages when life becomes a particular challenge. These stages are surrounded by uncertainty, fear and turmoil. Religions and cultures mark these stages with rites of passage. At those times we need some extra wisdom, strength and grace to accept responsibility for our future.

There is the stage from youth to adulthood; and anyone who has teenage children knows the challenges related to that transition.

Then there is the mid-life stage, sometimes called the mid-life crisis, when we ask whether we are travelling in the right direction or whether we are even on the right road and whether the journey is meaningful.

And then there is the fact and the challenge of retirement from our professional life, and of noticeably growing older. We become slower in our activities; our body becomes more and more frail. We lose some of the confidence we had; we have to go to funerals of friends more often than we like and that makes us lonely and fearful. The sapping of life-energy even effects our experience of faith.

Our society is often not helpful to our process of getting older. Advertisements glorify youth and fall to see the beauty in an old face. Managers rather than wise people determine the scene. Achievement often seems to be the only criterion for our usefulness.

All this means that getting older is not only a fact; it is also a challenge. It is therefore important that we recognise the challenge and try to deal with it. Can the resources of our faith in Christ help us to face and meet the challenge of getting older? Here are a few suggestions for your consideration.

We must recognise that life has meaning because God is the giver of life. Our task is not to give meaning to life, but to discover the meaning that is already there.

The meaning of life is not dependent on our health or fitness. It is also perfectly normal if our experiences are not as intense as they were when we were younger.

Faith is the gift of God which we accept gratefully and there are times when we simply accept that God has accepted us, whether we feel like it or not. What God said to his people we may apply to ourselves:

"even to your old age I am he, even when you turn grey I will carry you. I have made, and I will bear; I will carry and will save." (Isaiah 46:4)

Community is very important because the older we get the more we realise how important family and friends are to us. The church as the community of faith is the place where we can share and receive friendship.

We should therefore try to counteract the feeling of resignation. Too many older people tend to withdraw from life. For church and society, older people have a very important function. Let us occupy our place in church and society.

And let us try to be creative and show interest in life. How many older people share their faith with young people who would love and who would need to hear how life's experience shapes a person?