Going to Nineveh
“Happy birthday!” When you are young those shouts bring joy to your heart. There is going to be a party with balloons, cake, games, and most of all presents. It’s your own special day. Everyone is so happy to see you and you are the center of attention. Unlike almost every other day, you get to be first at everything. Most of the camera action is focused in your direction. Boy, who could ask for more.
I’m not sure where it is exactly we lose it, but somewhere along the way, the glory of another birthday loses its luster. You have to watch the size of the piece of cake you eat. You’re worried the camera is going to catch more of your bald spot, than catching that one angle where the picture will turn out if the lighting is just right. Then, no one can resist reminding you how long you’ve been traveling on the road of life either.
At your older birthday parties, conversation replaces games. Unlike when you were younger, when there seemed to be one family after another having a birthday party, older birthday parties are combined with others. Life somehow gets too busy and schedules are too tight to celebrate separately.
After the party is over, and everyone has left, it’s back to thinking about what discourages you in the first place: You’re getting old. What body part is going to ache more than it did last year? Am I going to start forgetting more than I forgot last year? I can’t have to run to the bathroom more than I did last year, can I? Then there is always: what is going to happen with my family, friends, or job this year that is going to cause me even more stress?
What’s worse are those years that end in zero. Everyone tells you it’s just another year, but you can’t help yourself and you fret even more than usual. You evaluate your life and reflect on where you thought you would be at this point in your life. Sure, your life is moving along. Sure, you have accomplished some things. Sure, you have learned from some of your failures and moved on. Sure, there are great people and great things in your life, but you can’t help but wonder if this is where you thought you would be at this point in your life.
As my fingers slide across this keyboard to write this blog, I head toward sixty years old this Friday. My mind is wondering on just that point. Like most approaching a milestone birthday, I have gotten a jump start on that thought process. Up until about a week ago, I wasn’t thinking very positively about it. Reading Ecclesiastes didn’t help lift my spirits much either. Solomon constantly mentioning that “life is futile,” doesn’t generate any of those “rah, rah” moments.
Then I seemed to hit a patch of some really good reading. I’m usually reading about five books at the same time. I read the Bible, a daily devotion book, a short daily “did you know this about history or philosophy” book, a nighttime book and a presidential “lunch time” biography. My wife wonders how I keep from getting them all mixed up, but they usually are different topics, so that helps. Surprisingly, though, their content sometimes blends into each other.
One of the greatest reasons I love reading Presidential biographies is that they usually present a man, who we come to call President, as a very human person. Whether you like them or not, whether you want to give them a big hug when they are elected or you want to move to Canada because they got elected, each of these individuals carries a unique suitcase full of stories. Some of those stories are inspirational and some leave you saying, “You did what?”
What I have found, by reading about the Presidents, is that you start to understand, even if you don’t agree with them, why they reacted and believed the way they do. I have felt touched by some of the Presidents who I really don’t think they were very good Presidents. But to get to that top post in our political structure, there has to be something to their story.
As my birthday approaches I would like to tell of five Presidents whose lives, or stories from their lives, inspire me and help assure me that it is okay to get old. Please don’t look over this list and think it is an endorsement on the quality of their Presidency. Quite frankly, there are some good Presidents on this list and there are some Presidents whose administration I am not too fond of. I am however, inspired by how they handled the art of which none of us has any control: getting older.
Since I’m not putting any of these Presidents in any kind of order, I’m going to start with the most obvious one today: Jimmy Carter. Growing up on a farm in Georgia, Carter learned to work with his hands. He also learned to appreciate the value of manual labor. Some of the hardest working people in America work with their hands. Unfortunately, sometimes those people are the one who get paid the least.
Carter’s rise up the political ladder happened because he understood that the poor working man needed a voice. That was his guiding principal belief. In times of economic downturn, voices like Carter’s, carry a very popular message. When times are good, and skills and education come more in demand, the unskilled sometimes get left behind. Many politicians adapted to that flux. Not Carter, his priority was always for the downtrodden.
Through many times in our history, when things aren’t going well, we have a tendency to look at our moral compass. We look over the horizon to see if we can find a knight in shining armor, someone who glows with the graces of our Mighty Heavenly Father. It was that way after Vietnam and Watergate. Our shining hero came in the form of the religious Jimmy Carter and his big, bright smile.
When Carter’s magic seemed to only make things worse, Carter was kicked out of office with a mighty boot. Many a soul would say, “He was just too nice to be President.” Carter could have lived out his days on his Presidential pension and returned to the old farm and got him a big boat and just gone fishing. But that wasn’t Carter’s style.
Instead, Jimmy Carter offered up an excellent example of what to do when we get older. Carter has been out of office almost forty years. He is over ninety years old. Yet, despite having cancer, he will still get out there swinging his hammer for Habitat for Humanity. His Carter Center monitors elections and looks out for poor people in other countries. Jimmy Carter, even in his old age, has taught us that as long as you have breath, you can find a purpose.
My second choice for elderly inspiration is the one who followed Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan. Although Reagan grew up very poor, he worked real hard and found a very successful life in all he did. From the radio broadcasting booth he eventually made his way to Hollywood and the film industry. I still enjoy watching some of his old movies. One of my favorites, even though he really disliked it, was “Bedtime for Bonzo.”
Ronald Reagan had one thing he loved more than anything else and that was America. Where some would retire from their professional life and go off and ride into the sunset, Reagan decided to get involved in politics. Unlike many politicians today, Reagan didn’t enter politics for his own glory or to promote a cause. Reagan got involved in politics because he loved America and he believed in Americans.
Reagan didn’t like what he saw happening to America. He would get upset when he would hear people say America was past her glory years. He believed America had just lost her confidence and all she needed was someone to remind her what a great country she really was.
Reagan, who was a Republican, converted a lot of people to his side. Unlike today, on either side, Reagan would reach across the political aisle. Much of his Presidential election success can be traced to those “Reagan Democrats” who voted for him.
When Reagan ran for reelection, many questioned whether he was too old for the stress the job entailed. It is here I find much inspiration for getting older.
During the reelection debate with Walter Mondale, the moderator point blank asked Reagan whether age should be considered a factor in the choice people make for their President. Ronald Reagan said, “I want you to know that also I will not make age an issue of this campaign. I am not going to exploit, for political purposes, my opponent’s youth and inexperience.” With that, the age issue went away.
With Ronald Reagan’s help I find that getting older is easier when you don’t take it too seriously. He also proved to me that you can have a love of America no matter how old you are.
The third President to offer me hope for my later years is Woodrow Wilson. While Wilson was serving his first term, he lost his wife. This devastated him. He knew he had been elected to serve the nation, but it was extremely hard without the love of his life.
Heartbroken, he carried on and before he knew it he was in love again. While Wilson was still President he would marry again. This second wife put a bounce back in his step and an inspiration in his heart. Life was even better than it was before.
Wilson was reelected under the slogan “He kept us out of war.” Yet, shortly after the ballots were counted, our soldiers were headed to Europe and World War I. It wasn’t that Wilson lied, it was just that conditions changed and he knew he had no other choice.
When the war was over, Wilson toured the nation in a push to get the peace treaty he worked so hard on passed. Wilson’s age and his health were not up to the task and he suffered a stroke from which he was never able to fully recover. He would live through his term, but he and his wife would just find a home in Washington DC and he would die three years after he left office.
For me, Woodrow Wilson’s old age inspiration is two-fold. First, when life handed him a trying situation like his wife’s death, Wilson did what we all would do, he got down. But instead of staying down, Wilson, despite his age, worked his way through it. He proved to himself and to us that even in the bad turns in life we can eventually find the smooth, straight highway again.
Second, Woodrow Wilson shows me that some things, like the League of Nations, the Treaty of Versailles to end World War I, and world peace are worth more than your own personal satisfaction and health. If your life isn’t worth standing up for something, is it really a life worth living.
My fourth President on my elderly advice list is the only one on my list whose head sits on Mount Rushmore. The famous mural consists of four huge Presidential heads carved from the stones in the mountain. You have George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt and him, Thomas Jefferson. Surely if your big, fat head is carved in a mountain, you must have done something special.
Thomas Jefferson was one of those Presidents who came from a fairly well-to-do family. Where many of that day would never see a day of school, his family made sure Thomas only had the best education money could buy. That’s good for us, too, because if he had not had such an education we may never have seen the eloquent touches that flow through our Declaration of Independence. Most credit him as the actual writer of that document.
Jefferson’s political career happened in the days of “gentleman’s” politics. It was the days when politicians got along very well. Well, they got along really well when they were standing in front of each other. Behind each other’s back they would do whatever it took to destroy those who opposed their views. It was also the age when, if you didn’t get your way, you just quit.
Jefferson’s major foe at that time was Alexander Hamilton, but eventually it would also include John Adams. When Washington seemed to side with Treasury Secretary Hamilton, Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson just turned in his resignation over and over again until Washington finally accepted it. Then he went to work behind the scenes to destroy Hamilton. Catching on to Jefferson’s tricks, Hamilton would also resign from Washington’s cabinet and he would go behind the scenes to try to destroy Jefferson.
Although it would be many decades after their deaths, much of our modern life can be attributed to these two men, even though they were political opposites. We can thank Jefferson for our freedoms, being just regular citizens, of being able to participate in our political process. Because of the cause he started, we don’t have to be part of the upper income to enjoy the benefits like education, voting, and being considered equal. For Hamilton’s part we have the un-fun stuff that makes government work, like banking, the Stock Market, and government regulations that sometimes do serve a purpose. We can blame them both for their pioneering efforts to make the political climate personal and vindictive, though.
But it is for his life after he left the Presidency that I find morsels of old age wisdom. First, education was important to him and he founded the University of Virginia after he left the Presidency. Second, Jefferson often spent beyond his means. This meant he had accumulated a great deal of debt. To help his estate not have to figure out how to “make ends meet” after he died, Jefferson sold his 6707 books to the US government which help rebuild the Library of Congress after Washington was burned during the War of 1812.
Finally, Jefferson renewed his friendship with John Adams. The two were very good friends until they became very bitter political rivals. They stopped talking to each other. There is much debate as to who got the two of them back together, but Jefferson, for his part, did cooperate and forgive.
So, with Jefferson, I find comfort in looking forward, not only keep learning, but also helping others in their efforts to learn from some of the things I know or the experiences I have had. From him I also learned the importance of being responsible and not leaving the next generation with debt. Finally, I learned that you are never too old to reconnect with old friends no matter what caused your parting.
The final President on my list might come to be the greatest surprise. My final Presidential inspiration comes from Richard Nixon. Yes, the shamed President who was force to resign the Presidency because of Watergate. How can such a disgraced figure make such a list?
In my opinion, Richard Nixon was the most paranoid President we have ever had. No President has thought everyone was out to get them more than Richard Nixon. It is in that paranoia that most of his problems and friendships suffered. There are many who believe that Nixon would have survived Watergate if he had just come forward when he first found out and had cooperated with the investigation. Instead he covered everything up and believed, as President, he was above the law.
Nixon was a Representative from California and made a name for himself when he was highly outspoken during the peak of our communist scare. He stepped on a lot of toes and made a lot of enemies. If you want to move up quickly, and get noticed, on the political ladder, that is often one of the best ways to do it.
Already a person not prone to develop close relationships, this aspiration made new, close relationships close to impossible. In the Watergate years, when he could have really used a close friend, he didn’t develop any and therefore he didn’t have many, if any at all.
Nixon was added to Eisenhower’s ticket as the Vice Presidential candidate. Eisenhower seemed to tire of Nixon and sent Nixon on one foreign mission after another to keep him out of his hair. I know what you’re thinking, Eisenhower didn’t have any hair. Well, if he did, he wanted Nixon as far away from it as possible. Eisenhower was ready to dump Nixon off his ticket on his reelection campaign. A corruption charge came up against Nixon and Eisenhower sensed his opportunity to dump Nixon.
Nixon surprised everyone one with his Checker’s speech and Nixon’s popularity soared. Eisenhower couldn’t think of dumping Nixon now, so he just kept sending him on more foreign trips when they were reelected. Little did anyone know at the time, but those foreign trips trained perhaps the best foreign policy President we have ever had.
When Nixon was forced to resign after Watergate, not a soul wanted to be seen with him. He was toxic. Nixon slipped into a deep depression and almost died from its effects on him. He worked so hard to get where he had gotten and now no one wanted to even be near him.
But Nixon had something that few ex-Presidents ever had. He had a resume of foreign accomplishments. When foreign crises arose, after Nixon left office, many of the Presidents would call on Nixon with their questions. Some would even slip him in the backdoor of the White House to meet with him. Bill Clinton really relied on him for several encounters and was so touched by his help that he gave the eulogy at his funeral. He could hardly contain his emotions as he spoke.
Richard Nixon inspires my old age curiosity with overcoming overwhelming feelings of a lack of self-worth or purpose. When everyone, including Nixon himself, was about to give up on him, Nixon found within himself the ability to rise above it all. He knew he still, despite the wrongs he had done, had something else to give. Life wasn’t about age or his personal history, it was about using the life God gave you no matter what that life was.
However, one of the Old Testament prophets seemed to inspire me the most on the old age question. For years now I have struggled with understanding what exactly is it that God wants me to do with my life. I keep searching and searching, but the answer seems to be eluding me. I have found some insight from this prophet.
This prophet had some very stubborn beliefs. He seemed to believe people, especially “evil” people, were glued to their lives and their choices. He thought if these people, or groups of people, claimed to have changed, they still didn’t deserve the chance to live new lives. Basically, God owed it to these people to punish them, period.
So when God asked him to go to a group of people and convince them to change their ways, he was quite upset. See, he knew he was a great preacher and his speeches would convince them to change. He also knew, instead of punishment, God would offer them complete forgiveness. In his mind, they didn’t deserve that chance.
So the prophet did what many do in a very tough situation. He ran in the opposite direction God wanted him to go. “There is no way I’m going to do that,” was his thought process. In other words, he wanted to do God’s will his way. God could talk to him until He was blue in the face, but there were limits to what the prophet would deem acceptable as God’s will.
God wasn’t very pleased with the prophet’s attitude. If the prophet wanted to run from the plan He wanted him to contribute to, then the prophet, and not the evil people he was supposed to lead to change, would suffer a punishment.
One of the reasons I know the prophet was such a great preacher is that he convinced a crowd that their bad situation was caused by his disobedience. He told them the only way they could escape the bad effects of this situation was to kill him. And that’s exactly what they thought they did.
But God wasn’t through with the prophet. Where the prophet was left for dead, God raised him from that death three days later. Surely the prophet now understood the value of God’s forgiveness.
Reluctantly, the prophet got back on God’s path and went to the “evil people” and preached to them. His great preaching skills came through again and all the people repented. That would be a great story, if that’s how it ended. But that’s not the end of the story.
You see, instead of being happy that the people repented and changed, the prophet got mad at God for forgiving them. Apparently forgiveness was something for him and not others, especially his enemies.
As I read a book on Jonah and read his chapter in the Bible, my own eyes were opened to my very own life. Jonah obviously had a very strong religious background. You can’t preach something with conviction if at least you don’t believe some of it in your heart. Jonah had so much conviction in his heart that he convinced men to throw him overboard in a violent storm to a certain death. Jonah had such a conviction in his heart that he turned evil Nineveh to her knees and toward God.
Jonah’s problem wasn’t that he didn’t believe in God. No, his conviction and his preaching are evidence that was not a problem in his life. Jonah’s problem wasn’t that he didn’t want to be on a path that God wanted him on. He just wasn’t convinced that the “voices” he heard knew what they were doing.
The “old age wisdom” I learned from Jonah was that if I want to figure out what God wants me to do, I have to be willing to do anything He asks me to do. For many years I have been trying to figure out “what God wants me to do.” Yet, time and time again, I’ve come up with reasoning and excuses as to why little “tasks” couldn’t possibly be it.
Jonah wanted a bigger plan, not one that involved him doing something he didn’t want to do. Jonah accepted forgiveness, yet he did not have the patience with others to allow them time to seek God to ask Him for forgiveness. Then Jonah wondered why God didn’t answer his prayers his way. When I see Jonah, I see me.
Amazingly the story of Jonah ends with him being upset about a vine that provided him shade being destroyed. God questions him by asking, “You are upset about a little vine, but you would rejoice in the destruction of thousands of people? Aren’t these souls worth more than this little vine and your pride?”
That is how the story of Jonah ends. There is no response by Jonah. Did Jonah change his attitude? More importantly, did I change mine?
Prayer: Dear Mighty Father, Thank you that I get to celebrate another birthday! I’ve done enough for you to have every right to destroy me, but somehow You have always found a reason to keep me around and to forgive me. Let me use my gifts, and my life, and my ears, to do a better job at doing Your will even in those “small” tasks that I can find many an excuse not to do. Amen.
