Three Scores and Ten

Painting by Tan Soh Beng

 

"What is your life? You are like a mist that appears for a while and then vanishes. In the morning it springs like new but by evening it is dry and withered." James 4:14 and Psalm 90:10  

Today is my 70th birthday. I have reached the Biblical watershed of Age, three scores and ten. I do not feel old yet and believe that there will be many more good years of service for God and the church. Consider James 4:13, 'If it is the Lord's will, we will live. 

I hope I have lived well. Scripture describes living well as a person who is like a tree planted by the waterside. 'Happy are those who reject the advice of evil people, who do not follow the example of sinners or join those who have no use for God. Instead, they find joy in obeying the law of the Lord and they study it day and night. They are like trees that grow beside a stream, that bear fruit at the right time and whose leaves do not dry up. They succeed in everything they do. Psalm 1:1-3

A man's life is valued by how close he has walked with God, the family he has brought up and the friends he has made and kept through many years. One does not leave behind any great legacies, only lasting memories. On that score, I am a very fortunate man, as this video of birthday greetings will attest, I have many faithful friends.

So what lies ahead? J I Packer in his book, Finishing Our Course With Joy wrote "Some grow old gracefully, meaning, fully in the grip of the grace of God. Increasingly they display a well-developed understanding with a well formed character: firm, resilient and unyielding, with a firm sense of proportion and abundant resources for upholding and mentoring others." (Ref 1)

Packer introduced the idea of Spiritual Ripeness. He wrote, "Spiritual ripeness is worth far more than material wealth in any form, and that spiritual ripeness should continue to increase as one gets older. The Bible's view is that aging, under God and by grace, will bring wisdom, that is, an enlarged capacity for discerning, choosing and encouraging." 

My buddy, Edmund Lee introduced me to a song by Alan Jackson entitled 'The Older I Get'.  

The older I get

The more I think

You only get a minute, better live while you’re in it

'Cause it’s gone in a blink

And the older I get

The truer it is

It’s the people you love, not the money and stuff

That makes you rich

And if they found a fountain of youth

I wouldn’t drink a drop and that’s the truth

Funny how it feels I’m just getting to my best years yet

The older I get

The fewer friends I have

But you don’t need a lot when the ones that you got

Have always got your back

And the older I get

The better I am

At knowing when to give

And when to just not give a damn

And if they found a fountain of youth

I wouldn’t drink a drop and that’s the truth

Funny how it feels I’m just getting to my best years yet

The older I get

And I don’t mind all the lines

From all the times I’ve laughed and cried

Souvenirs and little signs of the life I’ve lived

The older I get

The longer I pray

I don’t know why, I guess that I

Got more to say

And the older I get

The more thankful I feel

For the life I’ve had, and all the life I’m living still

In a country and western catchy tune we are told that Aging with God should be the principle of our next lap. Like Alan Jackson, J I Packer gave three advice:

First, live for God one day at a time. We should acquire the habit of keeping God informed every morning and reviewing before God as each day closes.

Second, live in the present moment. Packer said to get into the way of practicing God's presence. Get God into the picture of our day and cultivate divine companionship moment by moment.

Third, live ready to go when Christ comes for us. As far as we can put our lives in order and get right with God day by day. Then we will always be prepared. 

And so I hope to journey on under the guiding hands of God. This is God's promise. (Proverbs 2:5-6 and 9-11)

'Then you will understand the fear of the Lord

and find the knowledge of God.

For the Lord gives wisdom; 

from His mouth come knowledge and understanding

Then you will understand what is right and just and fair

- for every good path

For wisdom will enter your heart and knowledge

will be pleasant to your soul

Discretion will protect you and understanding will guard you.'

 

Lionel

Ref 1: J I Packer. Finishing Our Course With Joy - Guidance from God for Engaging with our Aging. Crossway 2014

The Folly of Futile Legacies

Mr S Rajaratnam was a founding father of Singapore, patriot, politician and the former foreign minister. He died at the age of 90 years in Sep 2006. In 1988, soon after he stepped down from the Singapore cabinet, Mr Rajaratnam was asked what he would do during his retirement from politics. He replied: “You know in Alice in Wonderland, there is the Cheshire cat who goes away but leaves his smile behind? I hope I will go that way too.”

A local newspaper, the Straits Times, commented, “The answer was quintessential Raja, unexpected, yet unexpectedly apt, leaving a smile on his listener’s face.” I agree. Many people wish to be remembered as the ones who have made a difference. They want their lives to matter. Like Raja, I prefer a less assertive influence, just a smile.

This same sentiment was expressed when I retired as Executive Vice Dean of the Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine, Singapore's third and newest medical school on the 31 Mar 2019. I had the unique opportunity of starting the School from scratch in 2011 in partnership with the Imperial College London. On retirement, I told colleagues that I think the only lasting legacies are the memories of friendships made. I went on to sing "The Way We Were", a song chosen to celebrate all the friendships made at LKCMedicine and the memories of moments spent with one another. 

How could most of us believe that in our lifetimes we could contribute sufficiently to leave a lasting legacy? Any achievement we make will very quickly, be forgotten. Those who aspire to make a significant mark hardly leave anything behind to amount to anything in the long run.

The desire to leave lasting legacies found expression in ancient history in the Tower of Babel. The tower of Babel was probably the first mega-building project in history. A building that was to be so gigantic it would be an architectural marvel and would have brought fame and posterity to the people who built it. What were the motives of the builders? What vision did they have in their sight? Gen 11: 4 recorded:

"Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves and not be scattered over the face of the whole earth."

The tower was to be a centre for their identity, their security, an expression of their community. It was to be something of lasting value and significance to pass on to the world. However, they were attempting to do the whole project without a single reference to God. In the end, the Bible recorded that God destroyed the tower and they became separated from each other in confusion and misunderstanding. Now tragic: Lofty Aims - Great Downfalls.

Most of us do not live special lives. We are seldom called to make great contributions or to perform heroic deeds. If we are feeling too ordinary, St Francis of Assisi gave all of us  a chance to build a simple but lasting legacy. This chance is found in his famous prayer:-

Lord, make me an instrument of Thy peace;
where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
and where there is sadness, joy.
O Divine Master,grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console;
to be understood, as to understand;
to be loved, as to love;

for it is in giving that we receive,

it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,

and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life. Amen

The key word to this prayer is the word, instrument. If we are willing to be instruments, God’s instruments then we have the chance to leave behind something more lasting than bricks and mortars. The builders of the tower of Babel had got it all wrong while St Francis of Assisi got it all right.

May our aspirations instead be "Make Me A Channel Of Your Peace"

Lionel