SEPTEMBER 29 2018
THE OLDER, THE WISER?
In a few weeks I will turn 90. Ninety years sounds old, but the time has gone by as a shadow, reminding me of a song I learned while in school – Latin of course – Horae, dies, menses, anni, sicut umbrae fugiunt – translated as Hours, Days, Months and Years fly by as shadows.
They have, indeed, flown by quickly. When Jacob was presented to the Pharaoh his words were perhaps typical: Genesis 47:9, “And Jacob said to Pharaoh, “The years of my pilgrimage are a hundred and thirty. My years have been few and difficult, and they do not equal the years of the pilgrimage of my fathers.”
I like that word ‘pilgrimage’. It portrays Jacob’s wisdom, his learning through trial and error, through deceit and subterfuge. He tricked his brother out of his birthright and used clever lies to cheat on his father-in-law, who was not a stranger to this himself. Through sorrow – losing his beloved Rachel – and trial – the cruelty of his sons – he gained wisdom when he recognized that we are pilgrims on this earth, eagerly awaiting the coming of the Messiah and with it the glorious new creation, where we belong. It is not, as the old-fashioned hymn has it, “We are strangers here, within a foreign land, our home is far away upon the golden strand”, whatever that means. Our home is not far away: it is right here, but it is in foreign hands as the Evil One has temporarily taken possession.
Jacob was also right in saying that his years were few and difficult compared to his father, Isaac, and his grandfather, Abraham who both lived a lot longer and lived tranquil lives compared to Jacob, with this two wives, his troublesome sons, and the heartache involving the disappearance of Joseph.
In that sense my 90 years are different: they have seen only blessing: children doing well, grandchildren doing well, we ourselves doing well, considering our age.
My wife of 65 years recently had a mastectomy but recovered well, and for some years has suffered from short-term memory loss, but otherwise is fine. Our doctor is amazed that it has not resulted in more severe symptoms.
I, well, last week, I ran the Terry Fox 10 km in about 67 minutes, not bad for an old man, even a tad faster than last year. Perhaps they shortened the route to make people feel better. And my mental facilities and memory are still in perfect order, even though some may dispute that.
I have been very blessed with my marriage partner, who always encouraged me to take courses and learn more. She herself did that too, becoming a master grapho-analyst, a hand-writing expert, giving courses and even writing a column. She also became a celebrated public speaker through Toastmasters, took courses in English and assertive training, and, especially nowadays, loves reading, something we both do all the time. No television, except for the occasional newscast.
The older, the wiser?
In the Bible the office of “elder” is honored. The Old Testament frequently refers to ‘the elders in the gate’ pronouncing their verdict on a matter of law. They certainly were seen as wise and able to make sound decisions in a matter of dispute.
Not anymore. Today old age is equated with obsolescence and irrelevance, and the young call the tune, as they are the pushers of new technology and the inventors today of what makes the world go round. The role of the old is delegated to TV viewing, a bed in the nursing home, and voting conservative.
Yet, more than ever in the history of the world wisdom is needed. More than ever, given the intractable and unsustainable issues we face, such as an over-indebted world economy, resource depletion, species loss, Arctic Ice melting, Methane emerging: near term human extinction, just to name a few occurrences. To cope with these threats, more than wisdom is needed. Are we up to it?
That is the burning question today.
If wisdom were a matter of numbers; if wisdom and the quantity of old people were to go hand in hand; if wisdom were to depend on sheer volume of aged men and women, then there would be no problem, but that is simply not the case.
Perhaps this is because old people never had it so good: they belong to the more avid participants in the political system, and that’s why the elected rulers have favored them above any other class.
To prepare myself for this essay, I read Jimmy Carter book “The Virtues of Aging,” not a great help. He mentions that, “It is interesting to note that Prince Otto von Bismarck, age seventy-four, first set the retirement age at seventy in 1889 in Germany, when the average lifespan was forty-five. If we had the same twenty-year interval beyond present life expectancy our government checks wouldn’t begin coming until we were almost a hundred years old.”
(I detected an error in Jimmy Carter’s reasoning: Bismarck either set it at 65, or the interval was 25 years.)
This promise of receiving handouts at 65 will someday backfire. There never have been so many old people in the world as there are today, and never, in proportion, so few young people whose contributions in taxes are supposed to finance the pensions and the accelerating medical outlay for the seniors.
Demographic imbalance
My wife and I live in an area where the young leave and the old people stay. Apart from education, the health clinic- 3 doctors, many nurses – and the local Hydro One department, there are not a lot of well-paying jobs here. Farming has become too mechanized to employ many. Perhaps we will see an influx from city people because urban air pollution plays havoc with our brains, a new study shows. At least here we have good air, living among the thousands of trees and drinking the pure well water gushing up in our well – 150 liters per minute. Combine this with the home-grown food and we keep somewhat saner than our urban friends and families.
It always amazes me how few people attend church even though being a member of a church creates fellowship and communion, a necessary ingredient for a long and healthy life. Around 1900 more people lived in our area than today, in spite of an influx from ex-urbanites. Then churches flourished and locally-produced entertainment was thriving, which generated more wisdom through intimate contact with the earth and with people, the most difficult and complicated species around.
Wisdom and religion are closely related, and with religion receding wisdom too wanes. The world defines wisdom as “the ability to grasp human nature, which is paradoxical, contradictory, and subject to continual change”. I prefer the biblical saying, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom”, a line that appears repeatedly in the Bible- Proverbs1: 7; Proverbs 9: 10; Job 28: 28; Psalm 111:10. The fear of the Lord points to pious devotion to his creation, a gesture that is increasingly missing in church and society. John 3: 16 affirms this.
Dr. Paul Tournier.
In addition to reading Jimmy Carter’s book, I also dug up a book I bought in 1973, when I was exactly half my current age. The author, Dr. Paul Tournier, a medical doctor and psychiatrist, practiced in Geneva, Switzerland. Judging by my notes and yellow markings, I read The Meaning of Persons twice before.
Dr. Tournier is a sincere Christian and believes that being a confessing person gives him a better grasp of the human psyche. He states that it is impossible to totally fathom what goes on in a person’s mind, not even for a psychiatrist.
When I read that, I gained a grain of wisdom realizing that when Jesus returns we meet him in eternity as incomplete persons, and that it will take eternity to fully understand ourselves. Only Jesus possesses perfect wisdom; only Jesus is the ultimate in wisdom. Imperfect is our self-knowledge, but we will be perfect in our desire to learn more, not only about ourselves, but also in our desire to explore creation, which also is an eternal quest. There we can readily and eagerly consult Jesus, our constant companion.
Today we live in the Information Age, of which T. S. Eliot, many decades ago, wrote,
“Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge?
Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?”
In eternity knowledge, information and wisdom will perfectly fit together, no longer items in isolation but all complementing each other.
Now Wisdom is lost.
I believe there is a direct connection between Paradise Lost and Wisdom Lost. The further we stray from Paradise, from the “Urzeit”, the further we distance ourselves from wisdom. Christ’s coming is a return to the Urzeit, the original state of creation, the state of the utterly pristine condition, where harmony is guaranteed and maintained forever. Then our wisdom and God’s wisdom in creation will go hand in hand. The further we stray from God’s creational wisdom, the further we distance ourselves from true wisdom.
The End is in the Beginning, and the Beginning is in the End. In the End we can observe evolution, can ascertain the development of human and animal, plants and microbes, stars and planets. In the End, which also is the Beginning, we will learn about ourselves, our bodies, minds and spirits: and that at our leisure, totally at ease, a perfect meeting of minds. No more personal ambitions, no more trying to compete, no more vying to outsmart each other: complete cooperation, completely united to probe the eternal mysteries of God’s infinite wisdom: that’s how we slowly and surely attain perfection, a journey that will never end.
Our task today: SEARCH FOR A NEW WISDOM.
That journey to perfection starts today. The road to wisdom is infinite: our searching and probing and learning never stops regardless of age. The fight is made more difficult by television and Google and Facebook and the Information Age, all conspiring to prevent us from acquiring true wisdom.
One of our current problems is that experience is no longer an asset. Our young people can no longer turn to the wisdom of the elders because, by and large, they don’t have it anymore. They are mainly responsible for the present state of affairs. “The faith of our fathers” has become a misnomer.
Also the so prevailing RAPTURE belief expresses the opposite of wisdom. It is a direct denial of God’s promise and a negation of his judgement. Aiding, abetting and silently condoning this heresy is contrary to “seeking the Kingdom” the most explicit command the Lord left with us.
Proverbs 1 contains words of WISDOM, eminently applicable to today.
20. Out in the open wisdom calls aloud,
she raises her voice in the public square;
21. on top of the wall d she cries out,
at the city gate she makes her speech:
23. “How long will you who are simple love your simple ways?
How long will mockers delight in mockery
and fools hate knowledge?
That’s the state today! The foolishness of the world is evident in our quest for endless exponential economic growth on a finite planet. It is not simply senseless but self-destructive, and therefore, clinically insane. And yet we persist, in spite of ever clearer signs that we are killing the earth and ourselves. This summer the West has sweltered and baked through 50 degrees Centigrade, and that’s now lurking as a regular condition. This is our new normal.
So who are we in these times? Who do we want to become? Where do we find NEW WISDOM? I believe that Galatians 6: 15 contains the answer, “Neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything; what counts is the new creation.”
This means that today the choice between infant baptism and adult submersion is irrelevant. It means that today being Jew or Muslim, Protestant or Roman Catholic, Hindu or Buddhist matters no more. The old religious wisdom no longer counts: all religions have gone astray.
Only the New Creation counts.
In Christ we are a new creation, and that newness is evident in living that new creation NOW, today, 2018, by being true to the Earth, God`s Holy Temple, God`s direct and primary Word.
How? That’s for you to decide. How? That’s for me to decide, the most important decision we will ever make, because on it depends our eternal life.