Sorry for the long pause. No time to write but have been thinking a lot lately about this theme. Robert Browning in his poetry puts it this way:
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!"
I think there comes a point in everyone’s life when a person begins to wonder about the truth of this poem. Is it possible as we age that “the best is yet to be”? There is something about being over 50, dealing with transitions in life, and even seeing some young people soar to success at an early age that leaves me with some plaguing questions. Have I peaked? Is the best really still waiting out there for me or is it already behind me?
I enjoy serving the church as a pastor, and yet with nearly 25 years of ordained ministry behind me I realize that it could be that what I am doing right now is as good as it will be for my career? I have no regrets about how God has led my life in serving the church and the community but I am still curious about the journey ahead. It is good right now. Could it get any better?
I love being a mother. Yet with most of my children out of the house I wonder, are the high points of motherhood behind me? If so, I look back and wish I had done better. It all goes so fast. The role of a mother changes through the years. How do I know if I passed the peak? What can I do in this phase of motherhood to make it the best?
In 26 years of marriage, my husband Kirk and I have gone from doing everything together in the first half of our marriage - working, serving the church, raising children, building a home - to having different interests and activities that consume most of our days separately. Some say that everything goes down hill after the honeymoon. I don’t agree but is there a peak somewhere else along the way?
In the midst of my wondering about growing old and when the best comes, I read a couple of weeks ago about Carol Masheter, the 65 year old woman who became the oldest woman in the world to climb the highest mountain on every continent. Yesterday, I read an article about a 90 year old Florida woman who went skydiving for the first time and is ready to go again. Neither of those activities really appeal to me but they remind me that there are endless possibilities of exhilarating moments as we age if we choose to pursue them.
Vivian Bugbee is one of my inspirations. To date, she has made over 300 full size quilts and over 300 baby quilts. She didn't start quilting until she was 70. One of my role models in life is Ann MacGregor, founder of Hospice of North Iowa in Mason City, IA. She made the bold move of hiring me, an outsider to the organization, as the first paid director of spiritual care many years ago. I would have thought that her CEO hospice days were the peak of Ann's success but instead she has gone on in her retirement years to peak again in directing the organization that restored the Frank Lloyd Wright hotel. Ann seems to have numerous high points in her life with potentially more to come.
Other examples come to mind as well. Frank Lloyd Wright designed Fallingwater at age sixty-nine and the Guggenheim Museum at seventy-six and did what some consider his most productive work between the ages of eighty and ninety three. Michelangelo was appointed chief architect of St Peter’s in Rome at age seventy-one and continued in that position until his death at eighty-nine. Ray Kroc, Colonel Sanders, Grandma Moses, Emily Post, Ferdinand Zeppelin all of them didn’t start doing what they became famous for until they were in their late fifties or sixties.
Are you on the way to the high points in life? Who knows? All I know is that it is not necessarily a matter of age, or position, or circumstances. As Browning concludes the first stanza of his poem, “Our times are in His hand. Who saith "A whole I planned. Youth shows but half; trust God: see all, nor be afraid!"
Happy aging to you. Seize the best in your life right now and enjoy.
