Every once in a while the newspapers carry a human interest story with a title like "Grandma Graduates from College." A "retired" minister friend of mine (he's in his 80's but still preaching more Sundays than not, and delivering clothes to pantries and serving as Spiritual Aims Chairman of our Kiwanis Club and into half a dozen other projects as well) passed on to me this week the story of Rose, who decided to go back to school at age 87 to finish what she had started long ago.
Rose embraced college life with enthusiasm and over the course of the year she became a campus icon. At the end of the semester, Rose was invited to speak at the football banquet. Being a bit nervous as she stepped to the podium, her three by five notecards slipped from her fingers and ended up helter- skelter on the floor. So she simply leaned into the microphone and said, "Im sorry I'm so jittery. I'll never get my speech back in order, so let me just tell you what I know." Here's one of the nuggets of wisdom Rose shared with her young college audience:
"There is a huge difference between growing older and growing up. If you are nineteen years old and lie in bed for one full year and don't do one productive thing, you will turn twenty years old. If I am eighty-seven and stay in bed for a year and never do anything, I will turn eighty-eight. Anybody can grow older. That doesn't take any talent or ability. The idea is to grow up by always finding opportunity in change."
It's inspiring to know you can in fact teach on old dog new tricks...especially as you begin to feel more and more like an old dog yourself!
The Christian life is about change. It begins with a changed heart ("A new heart I will give you, and a new spirit I will put within you" -Ezekiel 36:26) and leads to changed ways ("These are the ways you also once followed...but now you must get rid of all such things.." -Colossians 3"7-8). In the words of the Apostle Paul, we are "being transformed ... from one degree of glory to another" (2 Corinthians 3:18).
That's a lifelong process. As Paul put it at the end of his life, "Beloved, I do not consider that I have made it my own; but this one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus. Let those of us then who are mature be of the same mind" (Philippians 3:13-15a).
What if we thought of our lives this way? A lifelong enrollment in the School of Christ? The decision to follow Jesus is our matriculation; graduation is that moment when stand before the Lord and hear, "Well done, good and faithful servant."
I suppose for some that sounds tedious. (Isn't this class ever going to be over?) But consider the subject: "O the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God!" (Romans 11:33). And consider our instructor: "But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything" (John 14:26). And consider the reward: "And this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent" (John 17:3).
So, are you enrolled in the most important course of study in your life? And have you studied your text book lately? As the popular billboard message proclaims, "'Read my book. There will be a test!' --God."
Following Christ with you,
Pastor Erwin
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