Article January 28, 1980 Issue

Senior citizenship and opportunity

SHEILA GEIER

Is it right that a full and active life should culminate in the slowness, deterioration, and frustration sometimes associated with old age? Is this the reward of many years of good work in the church and community, office or home? Most definitely not! The passing of years has nothing to do with physical or mental problems of health, and our conscious expression of God, divine Life, can uphold each one of us in healthy, useful activity, no matter what our age.

Many industries and businesses feel that workers stop being useful to them at a certain age. How shortsighted this often is, considering the skills and wisdom these workers have acquired through years of experience, thought, and observation. But if one is retired through such a company policy, this is not the time to withdraw from life and begin a steady decline in health, freedom, and usefulness. Rather, let it be an opportunity to use one's God-given talents in a fresh direction. Free of a nine-to-five routine, we realize new horizons are waiting to be discovered.

Consider the story of Caleb, who, the Bible tells us, had been a trusted soldier for Moses and Joshua for forty-five years. After this long service, he claimed the inheritance Moses had promised him and his family. But his was no "retirement" into apathy and use lessness, for he told Joshua: "I am this day fourscore and five years old. As yet I am as strong this day as I was in the day that Moses sent me: as my strength was then, even so is my strength now, for war, both to go out, and to come in."^{Josh. 14: 10, 11;} Caleb won the land he desired and began a new life establishing his clan there. How easy it would have been for him to "retire." His family and his people needed his wisdom and courage.