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As someone who grew up in a Seventh-day Adventist family, I was repeatedly exposed to the thought that Jesus’ second coming was soon, and this had its effect on my thoughts about aging.
Basically, I had no thoughts beyond the age of about 21 and wasn’t even sure that the world would last that long before Jesus would arrive. That would have been quite a few years ago since I was born in 1953.
One of the things I was sure I wanted as a boy growing up was to find the female love of my life, marry and raise a family. But by age 21, it was pretty clear that marriage was not any more immanent for me than the second coming. And it was as though I was faced for the first time with the question of what to do with my life.
As it turned out, the next decade and-a-half was filled mostly with the acquisition of the graduate and post-graduate degrees in theology that paved the way to the pastoral work that I am still doing today. And even though it took me longer than usual, due to lack of financing and other things, it finally happened.
Then, at the ripe old age of 33, I met Anne, and after two years of courtship and engagement, we were married. More than half of my life was already over based upon the Bible’s “three score and ten” that is accorded to the weak (fourscore if one is strong), but at least I was married and functioning reasonably well in the professional calling of my choice. In this new phase of my life, I devoted more energy than before to pastoral work and was pleased to accept a call to work in Hawaii that lasted seven years and afforded me that chance to do some Bible teaching on the high-school level for part of that time.
Eventually, Anne and I chose to adopt four daughters from Russia who now range in age from 11 to 20 (we adopted them as older children rather than as babies), and I am experiencing the truth of the saying that life is like a roll of toilet tissue. The closer it gets to the end, the faster it goes.
But I choose to age as gracefully as possible, and I am thankful to many people along the pathway of my life who have made that easier. One lady in Hawaii especially inspired my wife and me with her youthful behavior and outlook. She had chosen the right parents, worked hard growing up and had taken good care of herself, but even considering those advantages, she seemed exceptionally young for her nearly 80 years. And here in southern Oregon, I have duly noted the positive example of several who reached and surpassed the 100-year mark.
At 55 and counting, I can look back on my life and truthfully say that I am thankful for the blessings of family and career that have been mine. But we all have deficits and defects that affect us as adults in this old world, and it is with that in mind that I look forward in faith to the new earth experience in which babies do not die soon after birth and childhood appears to last 100 years —in a perfect environment. See Isaiah 65:20.
Charles Disney is pastor of the Winston and Myrtle Creek Seventh-day Adventist Churches.
From the Pulpit is a regular Friday feature of The News-Review written by Douglas County religious leaders. Please contact June Davies 957-4206 to schedule or suggest a possible writer.
Basically, I had no thoughts beyond the age of about 21 and wasn’t even sure that the world would last that long before Jesus would arrive. That would have been quite a few years ago since I was born in 1953.
One of the things I was sure I wanted as a boy growing up was to find the female love of my life, marry and raise a family. But by age 21, it was pretty clear that marriage was not any more immanent for me than the second coming. And it was as though I was faced for the first time with the question of what to do with my life.
As it turned out, the next decade and-a-half was filled mostly with the acquisition of the graduate and post-graduate degrees in theology that paved the way to the pastoral work that I am still doing today. And even though it took me longer than usual, due to lack of financing and other things, it finally happened.
Then, at the ripe old age of 33, I met Anne, and after two years of courtship and engagement, we were married. More than half of my life was already over based upon the Bible’s “three score and ten” that is accorded to the weak (fourscore if one is strong), but at least I was married and functioning reasonably well in the professional calling of my choice. In this new phase of my life, I devoted more energy than before to pastoral work and was pleased to accept a call to work in Hawaii that lasted seven years and afforded me that chance to do some Bible teaching on the high-school level for part of that time.
Eventually, Anne and I chose to adopt four daughters from Russia who now range in age from 11 to 20 (we adopted them as older children rather than as babies), and I am experiencing the truth of the saying that life is like a roll of toilet tissue. The closer it gets to the end, the faster it goes.
But I choose to age as gracefully as possible, and I am thankful to many people along the pathway of my life who have made that easier. One lady in Hawaii especially inspired my wife and me with her youthful behavior and outlook. She had chosen the right parents, worked hard growing up and had taken good care of herself, but even considering those advantages, she seemed exceptionally young for her nearly 80 years. And here in southern Oregon, I have duly noted the positive example of several who reached and surpassed the 100-year mark.
At 55 and counting, I can look back on my life and truthfully say that I am thankful for the blessings of family and career that have been mine. But we all have deficits and defects that affect us as adults in this old world, and it is with that in mind that I look forward in faith to the new earth experience in which babies do not die soon after birth and childhood appears to last 100 years —in a perfect environment. See Isaiah 65:20.
Charles Disney is pastor of the Winston and Myrtle Creek Seventh-day Adventist Churches.
From the Pulpit is a regular Friday feature of The News-Review written by Douglas County religious leaders. Please contact June Davies 957-4206 to schedule or suggest a possible writer.
