Myths of Aging

MYTHS OF AGING
DR. JIM DIXON
1 KINGS 1:1
ECCLESIASTES 12:1
JANUARY 16, 1994

Well, Thursdays are my study day. Thursdays are the days that I normally do sermon preparation. I normally do that at home. So this past Thursday I was home working on my sermon, and I decided to call Barb here at the church. Barb works part-time in the front office. And so I called the church and the woman who answered the phone said that her name was Bernice. She said, “My name is Bernice, and can I help you?” And I said, “This is Jim.” I said, “I wanted to speak to Barb.” I didn’t know anyone in the front office named Bernice. And I mentioned that. And she told me she was a volunteer just helping out for the day. And I could tell that Bernice was elderly. I could tell that from her voice. And she told me that she didn’t know where Barb was. And I said, “Well, are you sure? I know she’s there at the church and she was expecting me to call.” And she says, “Well, you know, I’ve tried to buzz Barb’s desk all morning, and I don’t think she’s in.”

I thought that was strange because Barb works in the front office right where Bernice would be, and why would she need to buzz Barb’s desk? She could turn around and see Barb. And, and so I said, “Well, Barb works right there in the front office and her desk is right there. Have you looked to see whether she’s there?” And she seemed kind of confused about that. And I said, “Well, Barb’s desk is right next to Rita’s desk. And she said, “Rita, who?” And I said, “Rita Sondergard. And Barb’s right next to her there.” Bernice said, “Well, who is this again?” I said, “Well, this is Jim Dixon, and I just want to speak to my wife Barb.” And Bernice started laughing and she said, “Well, Jim, you’re the pastor at Cherry Hill’s Community Church. This is Faith Presbyterian.”

I certainly felt like a real buffoon. Normally when I call the church on our phone, I just push three. We’ve got that kind of coded in. Drew was on the phone talking to his girlfriend, so I went up to Heather’s room to use her phone and I had to dial it. And somehow I was on autopilot. I worked at Faith Presbyterian Church 12 years ago and somehow I just dialed that number. There I was, and I thought I was speaking to a confused elderly woman. And the truth is that I was just a confused middle-aged guy. Confusion.

Stereotypically, confusion is associated with the elderly. We live in a culture where there are many stereotypes concerning elderly people. This morning I want us to examine two cultural myths concerning the aged and concerning aging. I’d like us to examine them from the perspective of scripture. The first myth is this: you can’t teach an old dog new tricks. We’ve all heard that said. Of course, zoologists tell us it’s not true. It’s not true of canines, but the saying really doesn’t refer to dogs. It refers to people. It refers to elderly people. The inference of the statement is that elderly people cannot learn new things. The inference is that old people are rigid, they’re unteachable, and they’re unable to change. You can’t teach an old dog new tricks. But you see, it’s a lie. I mean, it is generally not true.

Now, you’ve all heard of child prodigies. Mozart was a child prodigy. At the age of four, he was playing musical instruments. At the age of five, he was composing. At the age of six, he was performing for royalty. I think it’s safe to say that probably there are very few of you who were child progidies. Perhaps none of you. That’s very rare. Most of us, if we’re going to accomplish anything in our life, we’re going to have to work hard and it’s going to take a lot of time.

Some of you perhaps are sitting there and maybe you think, “Well, I’m not sure I’ve accomplished anything with my life.” Maybe you feel like your life has just had no significance, but it’s not too late because you can be what many have called a “late bloomer.” Now, Grandma Moses, of course, was a late bloomer and famous painter. The first 76 years of her life were quiet and uneventful, but at age 76, Grandma Moses decided she was going to launch into a whole new career, attempt something she’d never done before. She was going to be a painter. She took no art classes; she received no instruction. By her discipline and maturity, she taught herself and she began to paint. In those latter years of her life, she painted more than 1,500 paintings, many of them classics, and of course, many of her best paintings she painted after she was a hundred years of age. She painted almost 400 different paintings after the age of 100. A late bloomer.

But perhaps the greatest late bloomer of all was the original Moses mentioned in the Bible. I mean, Moses was a Hebrew slave, taken captive in Egypt, adopted by Pharaoh’s daughter, educated by Egypt’s finest, reared in the lap of luxury. Moses spent the first 40 years of his life in the midst of an identity crisis. Who am I? Am I Jewish? Am I Egyptian? Who am I? Well, that question was answered in a moment of rage when Moses murdered an Egyptian who had mistreated Hebrew slaves. Moses wound up running for his life.

Now, if Moses had died then—I mean, if he had died at the age of 40—he would have been remembered as a hot tempered murderer who fled in fear rather than face his accusers. But, of course, Moses lived on and he spent the next 40 years tending sheep for his father-in-law, Jethro. This educated man, this highly skilled man, spent the next 40 years accomplishing little, not improving himself or the world in which he lived. If he had died at the age of 80, nobody would’ve remembered him at all.

But you see, 80 years of failure could not thwart the plan of God. And when Moses was 80 years old, he met God at the burning bush, and Moses fell on his face and he rose a changed man. He would never be the same. And Moses became the national deliverer, the law giver, the judge, the leader of God’s people all in his elderly years. And by the power of God, he led the children of Israel out of bondage, this meek man. By the power of God, he turned the Nile to blood. By the power of God, he parted the Red Sea. By the power of God, he brought forth supernatural water from the rock Meribah. Who says He can’t teach an old dog new tricks?

Of course, history is filled with people who accomplished great things late in life. Pablo Casals was giving cello concerts to thousands at the age of 88. At the same age, Michelangelo designed architectural plans for some of the great cathedrals of Europe, some of which still stand today, testimonies to the skill of an aging giant.

Tennyson wrote some of his best poems after the age of 80. Winston Churchill was 82 years old when he wrote The History of the English-Speaking People. Benjamin Franklin was 81 years old when he moderated the sessions that led to the adoption of the U.S. Constitution.

The Bible tells us in the 92nd Psalm that the righteous shall bring forth fruit in old age. It’s the will of God that we be fruitful at every age, and it’s the will of God that we be fruitful in old age. But you see, we live in a culture, we live in a society, that makes it difficult for elderly people to be productive, where a lot of elderly people are not allowed to work. And a lot of elderly people are not respected for the gifts and the skills that they have. We live in a culture like that. And the Bible tells us in Isaiah chapter 3, verse 5, that a nation, a society, that does not value or respect its elderly is destined to fall. There are many reasons for which this nation might fall. Certainly, one of the reasons is we do not adequately respect our elderly.

I think many of you are familiar with the Old Testament have heard of Rehoboam. Rehoboam was the last king of the United Kingdom of Israel. Rehoboam was the successor to David and Solomon. Now, Rehoboam had a problem. The kingdom was not happy. A lot of the people in Rehoboam’s kingdom, a lot of the people in Israel, were upset because they felt like Rehoboam was ruling too harshly. Rehoboam called for his old men. That’s what it says in 1 Kings, chapter 12. It says, “Rehoboam called for the old men who had once given counsel to his father, Solomon. And the old men came in.” Rehoboam said, “What do you think I ought to do? The people are disgruntled, they’re not happy. What do you think I ought to do?” And the old men said, “You need to have a servant’s heart.” They said, “If you would serve the people, then ultimately, they will serve you. If you will serve the people, they will serve you forever. You need to say good things to them. You need to do good things for them.”

Rehoboam rejected the council of the old men, and the Bible says in 1 Kings 12 that he called for the young men and the young men came in. Rehoboam said, “What do you think I should do?” And his contemporaries said to him, “You need to get tougher. You need to let them know who’s boss. You need to tighten the yoke. You need to say to the people, ‘My father disciplined you with whips, I’ll discipline you with scorpions.’” And this he did. He followed the council of the young. He ignored the council of the old. And the kingdom was divided, and the Jews were never united again.

Because of that episode in 1 Kings, chapter 12, the ten Northern tribes bailed out. They pulled out and they made Jeroboam their king. And Rehoboam was left only with Judah and Benjamin because he did not respect the old.

God’s message to us is, if you’re young (I mean if you’re relatively young), respect the elderly, value the elderly. And if you are elderly, God’s message to you this morning is bear fruit. You can be productive even in old age.

Now you see there’s a second myth of our culture I want us to look at briefly this morning, and it is this: You’re only as old as you think you are. Now, we’ve all heard that. I’ve heard that many times. And of course, I think we would agree in the sense that attitude is important. And certainly, attitude is. Some people are old before their time because their attitude is so bad. And you see, if aging was no more than attitude, then I would say that statement’s true. You’re only as old as you think you are. But you see, aging is far more than attitude. There are physiological realities associated with aging and they can’t be ignored.

In Ecclesiastes chapter 12, the Bible describes the physiological realities of aging. If you want to see a graphic description of the physiological realities of growing old, go home and read Ecclesiastes chapter 12. That chapter of the Bible describes how aging affects sight, how aging affects hearing, how aging affects sleeping, how aging affects taste, how aging affects mobility, and how ultimately aging leads to dust and death.

These are physiological realities. See, the reality is that our eyes begin to experience the effects of aging in their forties. I mean, the lens of our eyes begin to harden, thicken, and become more yellow. The pupils become smaller. The muscles that control the opening and closing of the pupil begin to be slower to respond.

The reality is that aging affects our ears. First of all, we begin to grow hair in our ears. But more seriously, 30 million Americans have significant problems hearing. And many of those problems in hearing are simply caused by aging.

The reality is that as we age, it affects our taste buds and our ability to distinguish taste. If you’re 30 years old, typically you have 245 taste buds on each bump, 245 taste buds on each papilla. But you see, if you’re 80 years old, typically, statistically, by way of average, you only have 88 taste buds on each bump. The taste buds have simply decreased in number over time. It’s a process of aging. You can’t do anything about it. It’s not something you can solve by diet or exercise. The taste buds simply diminish over time.

And the reality is, as we grow older, we are less and less able to distinguish the four basic taste sensations, sweet, bitter, sour, salty. And here’s the real bummer. The real bummer is that the taste buds that enable you to taste sweet things decrease in number most rapidly. The taste buds that enable you to taste sour things are the ones that hold on. They’re the ones that are most resistance to aging. Well, you see, the reason many older people really don’t eat very much is not because of aging or lower metabolism. It’s not necessarily because of that. In many cases, the reason elderly people don’t eat as much is that food just doesn’t taste as good. It’s lost its taste. And that’s also the reason many elderly people put so much sweetener and seasoning on the things that they eat.

Of course, as we age, it also affects our body’s ability to handle temperature extremes. We saw that in our passage of scripture for the day with King David. As he grew old, it didn’t matter how many blankets they put on him, he was always cold. And there’s a number of physiological reasons why our bodies find it more difficult to handle temperature extremes. This last year, Barb and I were visited by my parents and by her parents and they stayed at our house. Some days when Barb and I went out, we would come home and we’d open the door and it would feel like a blast furnace because they’d turn the thermostats up to 77 or 78 degrees. And it’s not because our parents are in ill health. My parents are 81 and 80 and they’re in good health for their age. It’s not because of a lack of exercise or bad diet. I mean, no one would have a better exercise regimen or a better diet than my dad. But you see, it’s the realities of aging. It affects the body’s ability to handle temperature extremes.

Of course, as we grow older and as we age, it also just affects our general mobility. We’re not as elastic. We’re not as flexible as once we were. And as we grow older, our bones become more brittle. You know, when Drew was a little kid, I really encouraged Drew to just come and wrestle with me anytime he wanted. And he loved it. I mean, he’d just come and jump on me. At any moment he’d just come and jump on my back and we’d wrestle around and it was a lot of fun.

The problem is, Drew still does it. You see, Drew is 16 years old and he’s plays football at Heritage High School. He lifts weights. He’s pretty strong and he still has moments when he just, you know, with a kind of a playful spirit, jumps on my back and he wants to wrestle, you know. Remember when you were young, how easy it was to fall? In fact, when you were young, you sometimes fell intensely. It was just fun falling, you know. But as you get older, as you begin to age, is it not true that as you begin to age falling becomes more and more traumatic? I mean, you reach a point where a fall is a major shock to the body, right? And see, when Drew wants to wrestle, one of the things he wants to do is topple me. I mean, he wants to kind of wrestle and we both just tumble to the ground.

I don’t handle that so well anymore. I mean, I just don’t handle it so well. In fact, last year when Drew and I were doing that, I tore my lateral meniscus cartilage in my knee. The truth is, I’m getting older. That’s the truth. I’m aging and I’m beginning to experience the effects of aging. And of course, aging also impacts the nerve cells of our body. As we grow older, the number of near nerve cells in our bodies diminish. Nerve cells might be lost because of disease or injury or maybe just because of aging. And here’s the thing about nerve cells. When they’re lost, you don’t get them back. I mean, they’re not like other cells where your body can replenish them or replace them. Nerve cells, when they’re gone, they’re gone. So you’re losing nerve cells as you grow older.

And even the nerve cells you do have are becoming less competent. The nerve impulses are not firing as rapidly as once they did and your reaction time is not as good. As you grow older, your reaction time slows down. I mean, you know how elderly people tend to drive slow. They’re not driving slow because they want to bug you and they’re not driving slow just because they’re timid in old age. They’re driving slow because their reaction time is slower. What should bug you is not an elderly person driving slow. What should bug you is an elderly person driving fast. That’s what should bug you.

But you see, there’s this process of aging and it impacts all of us. It impacts us internally. Our internal organs are aging over time. The brain, the heart, the liver, the kidneys, it’s all impacted. And ultimately, of course, this process of aging leads to dust and death. This is the reality.

Now, we live in a culture that is neurotic. There are few cultures more obsessed with youth, few cultures more preoccupied with staying young. There are few cultures in which more people do not want to grow old more than our culture.

I read an interesting book recently by Robert Hicks and the book describes the male aging process. Robert Hicks is a Christian. He takes a look at what the Bible says in the Old Testament. He takes a look at six Hebrew words for man, six Hebrew words not for man in the generic sense but in the sense of male. And these six Hebrew words describes various stages of a man’s life. They are other words, “adam, zakar, gibbor, enosh, ish, and zaken.” The six Hebrew words used in the Bible for man. And they describe the various stages of a man’s life. For instance, the word “gibbor” describes a man in his prime. The word literally means warrior. I mean, sometimes in the Bible it’s just translated man, but it means warrior. It describes a man with all of his warring strength, the strength that a man in his prime brings to athletics or even to the marketplace. It’s a stage of life.

Of course, you know, we live in a culture that’s so neurotic that everyone wants to continue to be a warrior. No one wants to let it go, but it’s just a stage biblically. For instance, another Hebrew word for man is the word “ish.” And the word “ish” by way of its derivation and root can refer to a high-ranking person or person in leadership. And the word “ish” describes a man when he has passed the warrior stage but he’s reached the pinnacle of his career and he has some sense of responsibility, authority, and leadership.

The word “zaken.” “Zaken” is the word in the Bible that describes an old man. The word “zaken” literally means “gray beard.” But it is used sometimes of someone who is sage, someone who is wise. And this is the word the Bible uses to describe elderly man. But you see, here’s the important thing. The important thing is you look at these six Hebrew words in the Bible, you look at the six stages of a person’s life, and they’re all venerated biblically. None of these words were negative. All of these words were positive. And biblically, a person, a man or a woman, embraced all the stages of life. There was a time to be a warrior, a time to be a leader, a time to be a sage, a time to be wise. All of these stages of life were honorable, and the Bible views every stage of life as having its own beauty as something to be embraced, not something to be avoided or feared.

This is the biblical perspective. But you see, our culture is neurotic and so afraid of death. I mean, why is our culture so afraid of aging? Because aging leads to death. And the Bible says there are so many people, it says in the Book of Hebrews, that are in fear because of death. And that’s why they’re so afraid of aging.

And perhaps it’s true of you. Perhaps you’re really afraid of growing old because you’re really afraid of death. You see, God wants people to rejoice in every stage of life. I mean, that’s the will of God for you. But it can’t happen if you’re afraid of death.

In June of 1876, James Butler Hickock, better known as Wild Bill Hickok, rode his horse into Deadwood, South Dakota. He rode into Deadwood, South Dakota, that day with Calamity Jane. This is a historical fact. He spent a few months there in Deadwood. In fact, it was August 2nd of that same year, 1876, while Bill Hickok was playing poker in the Deadwood Saloon Number 10 (there were a lot of saloons in Deadwood) into that saloon there walked a man named Jack McCall. Jack McCall hated Hickok. Jack McCall pulled out his guns and a bullet through Hickok’s brain and Hickok fell to the floor dead. In his hand they found the cards that he was using in poker. In his hand they found two aces and two eights—a pair of aces, a pair of eights. And to this day, that hand in the game of poker is called the dead man’s hand. We see God wants you to know that someday you’re going to be dealt that hand. Someday I’m going to be dealt that hand.

We’ve all got to play that hand, the dead man’s hand. We all face death. That’s the reality. And as we live life, through all the stages of life God does want us to be aware of that. I mean, in so many ways throughout the pages of scripture, we’re reminded of this—that we are mortal.

King Philip of Macedonia was a great ruler. He was the father of Alexander the Great. King Philip had a strange requirement of one of his slaves. He required that this one slave every day, no matter what, come into the presence of the king and say, “King Philip, you too must die.” I mean, that’s the one responsibility that that slave had. He did it every day, day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year. “King Philip, you too must die.” And King Philip of Macedonia was not morbid. He simply considered it wisdom to be reminded of his mortality, that he had a limited number of years on the earth. He was a steward. One day he would give an account.

Now, he lived before Christ and did not know the gospel. And yet biblically it is true that God wants us to be aware of our mortality. Our time in this world is relatively short. God wants us to enjoy every stage of life. And He knows that we can’t do that unless we have confidence in death. Here’s a culture that is so preoccupied with diet, exercise, and staying young. And I’m not knocking diet and exercise. I believe that’s part of proper stewardship and we should take care of our bodies. But you see, we live in a culture that is so neurotically preoccupied because there’s fear of death, and there’s the illusion that maybe we can control our health and we can keep death at bay. But we can’t, not ultimately. And so many are afraid. And perhaps some of you are afraid. And Jesus says, “Fear not. I’m the living One. I died, but I’m alive forevermore.” He said, “I’m the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he die yet shall he live, and he who lives and believes in Me will never truly die.

And so, this morning, as we approach the conclusion of our time together and the message, I know that God wants to give each and every one of you an opportunity to embrace eternal life. See, unless you know that you have eternal life, you can’t possibly have the proper joy through all the stages of life. You can’t view life properly day by day unless you know this life is just a drop in the bucket compared to all the years of eternity to come. And that’s what God wants you to know. He wants you to live every day with that confidence that this life is just a time of preparation for the real world to come. And unless you have that attitude, you’ll never have the joy that Christ wants you to have. Let’s close with a word of prayer.