I was on the London underground recently. A strange thing happened to me. It was very embarrassing. It was the first time it has ever happened in my life. It took me completely by surprise. I didn’t know how to handle it. I was standing by the door as I usually do when out of the blue, a young Asian man got up out of his seat and offered it to me. I thought he had made a mistake. I embarrassed him as much as myself by refusing to sit in his place. So we both stood and looked pretty silly. It had not occurred to me that I looked like an elderly man. I smiled and thanked him. I suppose my real mistake was not colouring my hair when the first grey hairs began to appear. Now it is too late. You would notice, and in any case I’ve been overruled at home.
You can mask the signs of aging and you can even lie about your age, but there are always consequences. I had an elderly couple come to see me recently asking me to sign a new marriage certificate for them. One of them had lied about their age 40 years ago in order to get married. Now 40 years later it had created complications. Their pension was being queried. So the marriage certificate had to be amended to match their birth certificate.
This Summer I turned 60. It was a significant moment receiving my Senior’s Railpass.
I feel like a little boy again. Oliver Wendell Holmes said “People do not quit playing because they grow old; they grow old because they quit playing.” And that’s the challenge, managing the tension and sometimes the aches and pains between how we feel on the inside and what we can do on the outside. Mark Twain once said, “Age is an issue of mind over matter. If you don’t mind, it doesn’t matter.”
Success truly knows no boundaries. Many people have achieved their dreams much later life. I was a slow developer at school, but do you know how old Harlan Sanders was when he opened his first Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant? 65. How old was Ronald Reagan when he became President of the United States? 16 days before his 70th birthday. How old was Golda Meir when she became Prime Minister of Israel? 70. How old was Nelson Mandela when he became President of South Africa? 74.
How old do you have to be to start living? That is your choice. The older I get, the more I want to get out of life. The greater the impact I want to have. Retire and play it safe? No! I want to live more dangerously, take more risks, learn new things, and make every day count.
I may be wearing out but I am not giving up. Hardening of the viewpoints is far more lethal than hardening of the arteries.
That is why I am really excited that the new Good News Café for Seniors (or Silver Surfers if you prefer) open every Thursday afternoon and not just monthly. We aim to host a growing number of events and activities that you want and that will motivate you to get the most out of the wonderful gift of life the Good Lord has given you. Every day is a gift from God. A new beginning. An exciting adventure, knowing we were created with meaning and with purpose. God’s plan? To know God, and serve him and enjoy him forever and ever. The Apostle Paul wrote about this,
“Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.” (2 Corinthians 4:16-18)
May God bless you and those you love.
Dear Bishop Christopher,
The story of Hosea and Gomer sounds like an episode right out of the Jerry Springer show. “The Vicar Who Married a Prostitute.” The sub-text could have been: “Clergyman’s wife cheats on him. Her children are fathered by three different men. Sold as a sex-slave, her long suffering husband buys her back.” With Gomer looking down at the floor in shame, Jerry asks “Why did you do it Hosea?” as the studio audience jeers. “I knew she would be unfaithful but God told me to marry her anyway, love her enough to let her go, buy her back, forgive her and show how much I love her.” If it happened today it would make the Sunday front pages, wouldn’t it? Hosea was a young preacher in the nation of Israel, the northern kingdom. He was a contemporary of the prophets Isaiah and Amos. He lived, as we are told in the first verse, during the reigns of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah (kings of Judah), and during the reign of Jeroboam, the king of Israel. But where Hosea stands out is that instead of delivering his message verbally, he was to deliver it visibly, quite dramatically through his marriage, through his wife and even through the choice of names for his children.
At least one in four American Christians surveyed recently by Christianity Today magazine said that they believe it is their biblical responsibility to support the nation of Israel. This view is known as Christian Zionism. The Pew Research Center put the figure at 63 per cent among white evangelicals. Christian Zionism is pervasive within mainline American evangelical, charismatic and independent denominations including the Assemblies of God, Pentecostals and Southern Baptists, as well as many of the independent mega-churches. It is less prevalent within the historic denominations, which show a greater respect for the work of the United Nations, support for human rights, the rule of international law and empathy with the Palestinians.
Sometimes patience is a virtue absent in the holiest of saints. On the last day of the Papal visit to the UK in 2010, there was a little known incident on his way back to Heathrow. The Pope was delayed due to meetings and was going to miss his flight. When the limousine arrived, the driver was overjoyed to be carrying the Pope. But he was nervous and drove very slowly. The Pope asked him to speed up. But the driver went slower; he wanted to keep the Pope in his limousine as long as he could. The Pope insisted on driving the limo himself. The Pope sped off and was clocked by a speed camera doing 85 mph.
How can you be sure that you are a Christian? How can you know that you know? This is one of the most important questions you can ever answer in life. It is foundational to your life and growth as a Christ follower. Without the peace of mind that God loves you and that you are a child of God, you will never feel secure. You will always be tempted to doubt your faith. You will fear that you are not good enough. You will worry that you might lose your faith. Tonight I want us to answer the question once and for all. Please turn with me to 1 John 5. In verse 13 John writes,
This year we are celebrating the 175th Anniversary of Christ Church. Virginia Water has changed a great deal since the early 19th Century. The 1830’s were troubled years in Britain. Agricultural depression, large scale unemployment, poverty and rioting in rural areas. In 1846, the Cambridge Chronicle described Virginia Water as inhabited chiefly by “agricultural labourers, and not a few idle poachers,… in a state of ignorance, ungodliness and spiritual destitution rarely equalled.” The nearest church was St John’s in Egham and there were few free places allocated to the poor.
“A little boy is on the beach. On his knees he scoops the sand with his plastic shovel into a bright red bucket. Then he upends the bucket on the surface and lifts it. And, to the delight of the little architect, a castle tower is created.