GIVE UP THOSE AGE-OLD CONCEPTS

ROBERT HOLCOMB

WHEREVER YOU TURN these days, you seem to be assaulted by the topics of age and aging. And these are not just family issues. They're the topic of discussion in many communities, and often featured in the local press. They're the focus of debates and conferences, national and global.

Among recent topics are the protracted retirement years ahead for post World War II "baby boomers" and the anxiety felt among seniors about their increasing age-related health needs.

But these concerns don't have to dominate people's lives. Take my friend Ed, who is a marvel. Though he is well advanced in years, he is productive, energetic, caring, and seems on the cutting edge of everything. Ed is an active Christian Scientist. He prays regularly. He is a thinker, a spiritual investigator. He knows all about current events. He looks into everything. You want to know about computers, websites, phone systems? He will explain.

Ed helps neighbors by harvesting their fruit from the uppermost boughs, climbing up precarious ladders to do so. He rides white-water rapids. Cycles in the mountains. For me, he is the epitome of Mary Baker Eddy's statement, "We live in an age of Love's divine adventure to be All-in-all" (The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany, p. 158).

Ed has helped open my eyes—and those of many people a lot younger than he is—to delight in divine adventures. I find it wonderful to think of age as a period marked by the development and unfoldment of good. But what is "All-in-all"? It seems to me that phrase might be about finding God to be everything, for everyone, everywhere, at every moment. At all times, in all places, for all of His children, God is revealing the reality of spiritual being. And this can lead us to look at age in a different way.

The Bible is a good starting point. After discussing what a search to understand God entails, the writer of the book of Job talks about the spiritual rewards, including the comforting assurance that "thine age shall be clearer than the noonday; thou shalt shine forth, thou shalt be as the morning" (Job 11:17).

Vitality, energy, buoyancy come to your daily affairs when you realize that God is the only source of good, and that your very being flows from that divine source. That's why it's natural for us to be expectant, strong, resilient, appreciative of others, eager to express thanks for the joy we see around us each day. We can even be bubbly. The Bible tells us that God is the "fountain of life" (Ps. 36:9).

People don't all view things this way. They are sometimes sidetracked by the toll they feel the passing years are taking on them or their relatives, friends, and neighbors. But I have found that as you grow spiritually, these "old age" concepts begin to feel "age old"—outstripped and no longer relevant. For me, it's Science and Health that has the answer: "Life and goodness are immortal. Let us then shape our views of existence into loveliness, freshness, and continuity, rather than into age and blight" (p. 246).

Nothing can keep us from doing that. Whatever calendars and driver's licenses say about us, it's never too late to begin letting go of material limitation and accepting the evidence of spiritual sense. There aren't two of us—one we want to get to be, and one we want to get rid of. There is in reality only one—God's child. And anyone can discover that to be the truth, right here, right now.

VITALITY, ENERGY, BUOYANCY COME TO YOUR DAILY AFFAIRS WHEN YOUR REALIZE THAT GOD IS THE ONLY SOURCE OF GOOD.

Every day I ask myself: How's your spiritual curiosity? How willing are you to accept new views? How openly do you express love, forgiveness, respect? Are you letting divine Love help you express human affection, mental approval, openhearted appreciation? Positive answers lead inevitably to spiritual development. There is "loveliness, freshness, and continuity" in thought and action, rather than "age and blight."

Early each day I indulge myself a little by taking what I've come to call a "metaphysical sunbath." I reflect on God's unmitigated, unwavering, unconditional love. I draw comfort from the thought that God approves of me, is delighted in me, is thrilled with me. Why? Because I am His beloved child, His flawless reflection.

Each time the word age crops up, I try not to think of ripening years, but of a spiritual journey through unfolding good, steady development, and inspiring revelation. I'm more convinced than ever that Love's "divine adventure" is always ahead of us.

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