Changing profession at age 100

A close friend and I recently talked about longevity. The topic becomes more interesting for those of us in our middle years, but is well worth anyone considering.

“I’m going to change professions at age 100”, my friend said. The statement would have surprised me had I heard this idea from him for the very first time, but about 20 years ago he had told me that he was going to live to be 120.

This is not hubris, this is goal setting. What my friend was saying, in essence, is that he intends to live his life in such a way as to reach this goal. He is pragmatic, and understands that he may not attain his goal, but what he is saying is that he is going to treat his body and his soul in such a way as to be able to make it if he can.

It’s easy, I am finding from experience, to “dial down the rheostat” of life in the middle years. “This is too complicated.” “I’m too old for this.” “I’ve tried this before and it didn’t work.”

A Swedish friend told Linda and I on the occasion of our first departure from Sweden that she would miss us because so many she knew had “given up” and we haven’t. What she was saying was that so many of her friends in our mid-50’s age group have dialed down the rheostat of their expectations and activity. She certainly hasn’t given up, and one of the reasons she appreciated us was that we hadn’t either.

There certainly is a place of “surrendering gracefully the things of youth,” as the apostle Paul put it. And clearly, sickness or disability may limit our options. However, there is no reason to give up that which still belongs to us. But I have seen in myself just that behavior, and I struggle against it.

For example, I was surprised to find that gaining strength is not just for the young. I learned this in my late 40’s at a time when I had casually assumed that I was unable to gain as much strength as a young man might. But over a period of only two weeks I gained 50% more strength in specific muscle groups simply by training consistently. It turns out that science has now demonstrated that this potential for strength gain exists at every age of life.

Another example: coming down from an early morning hike into the foothills east of Anchorage, my right knee was in agony as a result of an injury 15 years ago. Later in the day, the other knee was on fire because I overused it in protecting the first knee. I was pretty miserable. The lesson was “I’m too old for this.”

But here’s the reality check delivered by my doctor: I can hike all I want, he said, I just have to build up my muscles enough to compensate for the loose knee ligaments. All the flat ground walking I do is great, he said, but it’s not enough to help with descending from the mountains (which is where the pain is).

How many other areas of my life have I ceded when in reality they still belong to me?

Linda and I applied this discussion to ourselves as we drove home from Delta Junction today. While we have thought casually in terms of what we might do in the years ahead, we are now thinking to set a goal date at which we “retire.” At that point, our idea is to have enough funds to work full time in missions or other Christian ministry.

I like the idea of setting a life goal. It will help to focus what we do. I don’t know if like my friend I’m going to change professions at age 100, but I’m sure going to change it about 65!

Wedding In A Greenhouse

Linda and I went today to a wedding in a greenhouse. Katie's friends Bobby and Daniella wanted to be married in civil ceremony, but not at the courthouse. So, they asked Katie to marry them! In Alaska, almost anyone can officiate at a wedding. It's only necessary to become a marriage commissioner. The state of Alaska paperwork makes it legal then to perform one marriage ceremony. Dani asked that I pray for them, which I was glad to do. Katie did a wonderful job.

It was a pleasant place for the ceremony with tropical birds singing and plants all around. The "Alaska state bird" -- usually present for such ceremonies outdoors here was noticeably absent.

Later, we went to a reception where a number of other friends came and congratulated the couple. We talked for quite a while to Bobby's Filipino parents -- age 95 and 79, and both healthy and interesting. Bobby's father has been in Alaska since 1951, and in the US since the 1930s.

Bobby and Dani bring together a family of four and two children. Katie made a certificate of marriage for them to keep that allowed the children to sign as witnesses.

Wealth

Yesterday was my birthday. I am 56. All of my family expressed their love in the form of birthday greetings. It occurred to me that I am indeed a rich man. I have parents, siblings, children, and many, many friends who love me. We even like each other. I have enough to eat and a roof over my head. The God of the Universe knows and loves me, and I am part of His Kingdom.

Is it possible to be wealthier on this earth?

Fighting the Good Fight and Winning the Beauty

I watched two films yesterday....which is about a 3000% increase in my normal frequency of film watching. Both were Westerns: Conagher and the Magnificent Seven, in that order.

As I was reflecting on these films, it struck me that both had similar themes, and that these themes are written in the souls of men -- which is what makes the films appealing to us, of course. I recognize these themes from the analysis of the soul of a man from a book I read last year, Wild at Heart, by John Eldridge.

The first theme is what I would call "fighting the good fight." In the case of Conagher, the lone cowboy courageously fought the rustlers, even at the cost of physical injury and risk of death. He fought for the sake of honor; because it was the right thing to do. In the Magnificent Seven, the hired gunfighters protected a small and nearly defenseless village against a force much larger than their own. It cost four of their lives. Their wages were just $20, a pittance for that kind of work, even in the 19th century.

The second theme was "winning the beauty." In both films, the "good guy" won the love of a woman.

I believe that as we men age, it is increasingly important to us to have spent our lives well, to have fought the good fight, win or lose. It is also important to us win a wife and to go through our lives with her at our side. I would say that these desires are built into us by the Creator, and it is a good thing to respond to them.

We can respond to these desires that God has placed in us at any age in life. If we are young it is possible to decide on fighting a good fight and doing so throughout life. If we are old, there are battles that even the infirm can fight. Even if we are married in a stale relationship, soured by years of failure and neglect, we can make the decision to fight for the beauty that exists in the heart of the woman beside us.

New Directions!

During this week's church meeting, we heard some unusual and exciting news. Long time friends of our church New Directions Ministries is moving in with us, and partnering with us.

So we will be two churches in one. New Directions has a strong outreach to counter-culture youth in Anchorage, and has built up a strong ministry helping teens and young adults through great storms.

Starting Thursday evenings, New Directions is going to rock the building with their style of worship.

Starting immediately, we begin working closely together blending our strengths and working together on weaknesses.

Pressing in to the pain

Yesterday, Linda and I helped bury a friend. Phil Roe died earlier in the week when the Service Fuel Company truck he was driving rolled on the Richardson Highway near Meiers Lake.

We drove to Kenny Lake Saturday morning and arrived before the Celebration of Life began. The Kenny Lake community was hit hard by this death, and turned out en masse. Richard Irwin (our pastor at Anchorage City Church, and a personal friend of Phil's) told us that a number of the businesses in the area closed down so people could be at this meeting. There were perhaps 400 people gathered at the Kenny Lake School gym.

Kenny Lake Community Church and others did an outstanding job of helping the family through this and preparing for these ceremonies. We heard that on Friday night, there was two hours of testimonies about Phil at the "viewing" that had been arranged in his honor.

Over my 55 years I have been to few funerals. That will change as I age; it happens to us all. At this funeral, I came to understand that I needed to "press into the pain." It hurts to lose Phil and it really hurts to see his family's pain. But this is very human, and I am less than God designed me to be if I draw away at this time; both for myself and for them. So, I let myself weep. I let myself hug his family with tenderness.

At the grave, we who were Phil's friends had the opportunity to spade dirt onto his coffin. Dozens of men and women came forward and whispered or spoke "good bye" or, as I did "see you later, Phil."

If there is one consolation to Phil's loss, it is that this separation from his family, and from us, his friends, is not eternal. None of us, not Phil, not me, no one is good enough to earn eternity with the Creator of the universe, but it was his gift to all who would truly believe in Jesus, the Christ. There were many tears on Saturday, but Phil's family knows, and we know, that this is not the end.

The Power of Committed Marriages

This is the text of a talk that I gave at the final session of the Marriage Course at our church in Anchorage.

For the past seven sessions we have been taking an inward view of marriage. We’ve been talking about how to make a marriage work, and how to make it work well. All of us on the team hope that your marriage has been impacted and strengthened. It’s more than a hope; the team has been praying for you by name as we have gone through these months together.

Tonight I want to finish this marriage course with a look at marriage from another perspective. What I am going to demonstrate tonight is that committed marriages have power. Not only do they have power in individual families, they have power in communities and they have power in nations. In fact, we could call it four dimensional power, because not only do committed marriages impact the world around them, they have an impact through time.

What is a committed marriage? It’s a marriage that stays together for a lifetime. It’s a marriage that is going the distance, no matter what. It’s a marriage working to be more than just two people living in the same house. It’s a marriage like yours and mine where a couple is working to make a successful union of man and woman.

Now, let me stop for a moment and speak to those of us who have had less than perfect marriages in one way or another. Some here are working on a second marriage, or perhaps a third.

Please do not hear anything I say through the filter of condemnation. There is no one in this room who has achieved perfection -- certainly not me. We are all on a journey. Through Jesus, we have the great gift of reconciliation with the God of the Universe.

The book of Romans says it this way: “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death.”

Where we have sinned or fallen short, we have the gift of forgiveness and starting over. If your marriage has been short of perfection, you can start fresh today. If you are in Christ, the old path is covered by the blood of Jesus.

Our society today is full of messages that marriage is a disposable contract. If you don’t like the terms, society says, you can just tear it up and throw it away.

That’s not the way the God of the universe looks at it. Let me read from the Gospel of Mark

Jesus then left that place and went into the region of Judea and across the Jordan. Again crowds of people came to him, and as was his custom, he taught them.

Some Pharisees came and tested him by asking, "Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?"

"What did Moses command you?" he replied.

They said, "Moses permitted a man to write a certificate of divorce and send her away."

"It was because your hearts were hard that Moses wrote you this law," Jesus replied. "But at the beginning of creation God 'made them male and female.' 'For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.’ So they are no longer two, but one. Therefore what God has joined together, let man not separate."

This was a message with an impact. It stunned the disciples and it must have stunned those who asked the question.

Marriage before the coming of Jesus was a disposable item. A husband was permitted to write a certificate of divorce and send his wife away. It sounds a lot like today. Get a certificate from the court, and the deed is done. The marriage is over.

But listen again to the words of Jesus: “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh. So they are no longer two, but one. Therefore what God has joined together, let man not separate."

The message here is that God takes marriage seriously! Jesus is quoting from the book of Genesis. From the beginning, then, it has been God’s plan that man and wife become one inseparable unit.

A contract is an agreement between two or more parties. Contracts are common in our world today. They are important in business because they spell out expectations. Contracts often have provisions for what happens in the case of non performance. In this case the contract is nullified, and the parties are no longer bound by it.

But is a marriage a contract? I suggest to us that marriage is not a contract. Remember Jesus’ words? “They are no longer two, but one.” How can two who have become one nullify their contract? Marriage is not a contract, it is a covenant. It is not like the agreement between two business partners, it is more like the covenant relationship between God and Abraham.

If we are called to marriage, God designed us to be complete through marriage. He designed us to complement our different giftings so that together we are stronger than the sum of our individual parts. He designed us to be strong together to build functional families. He designed two to become as one.

Nations are built of communities. Communities are built of families, and families and nations can be no more functional than the marriages that form their foundation. Good, functional families build good, functional communities. Good, functional communities build strong nations.

America has been a strong nation for many reasons, but foundationally, it has been strong because the strong communities that make it up, and the strong families that comprise those communities have been built upon the foundation of strong marriages.

We are all painfully aware of the great social problems that face today as a nation. Even in Anchorage, the problems are immense. In study after study social science tells there is nothing that drives these problems more than family breakdown. It is not racial discrimination that drives these problems. It is not poverty that drives these problems. It is the breakdown of families that drives them.

If family breakdown is the driver, we can kick that driver out of the car, one family at a time. If my wife and I sow into our family by making our marriage strong, and if you and your spouse sow into your family by making your marriage strong, and if the husbands and wives of our community do the same, we are going to see a harvest of righteousness growing in our society.

There is only one more thing more powerful that you and I can do for our children, our community and our nation than to build our marriages and make them strong, vibrant and alive.

Do you want to build a legacy that will last beyond your lifetime? With our marriages God has given us the gift to reach through time into the lives of our children, and our children’s children and even beyond. Think of it this way: by the good seeds we sow today in our marriages, future generations can reap a harvest of joy.

But it’s not by our power that good marriages are possible. I said a minute ago that there is only one thing more powerful in society than a good marriage. That is the power that makes good marriages work. It is the power of husbands and wives who acknowledge Jesus the Christ as Lord. It is the power of men and women who live their lives through the leading of the Holy Spirit.

If you are not yet a believer, I want you know I am not talking about joining Anchorage City Church or any other church. I am not talking about lighting candles and any of a hundred other forms of religious behavior.

What I AM talking about is meeting Jesus in the stillness of your own heart and mind. He is waiting just outside the door of our hearts, and the Bible says this:

Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me.

We don’t have to do anything religious to open the door; we just need to quietly let him in. We can do that in the silence of our own homes, on the top of a mountain, in a church meeting, or even right here and now.

There is strength in a real relationship with Jesus. That relationship with Christ makes the glue of marriage into an epoxy that is stronger than the materials being joined.

Watch this.

At a Marriage weekend that Linda and I attended a few months ago here in Anchorage, we heard a startling statistic. Half of American marriages end in divorce, and whether people are members of a church doesn’t seem to make any difference. We have heard this many times, perhaps. But here’s what made me sit up in my chair: There is a group of people in this country who have a better than 99% lifetime commitment rate in their marriages. It is those believers who pray together and study their Bibles together. It is those believers who have made their faith the center of their lives together.

If your marriage or mine is not perfect today, it won’t be tomorrow either, but we can start right now on the path to lifelong commitment.

Committed marriages have the power to change communities and nations. They have the God-given power to reach into the lives of generations not yet born. Let’s allow the Holy Spirit to take control of our marriages and watch the blessings grow.

The two shall be one

Jesus' attitude toward marriage was strongly positive. In a day when by religious law divorce was relatively easy, Jesus raised the bar and called men and women to a higher level.

Here is what he said, as recorded in Mark's Gospel (emphasis added):

2Some Pharisees came and tested him by asking, "Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?"

3"What did Moses command you?" he replied.

4They said, "Moses permitted a man to write a certificate of divorce and send her away."

5"It was because your hearts were hard that Moses wrote you this law," Jesus replied. 6"But at the beginning of creation God 'made them male and female.'^[a] 7'For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife,^[b] 8 and the two will become one flesh.'^[c] So they are no longer two, but one. 9Therefore what God has joined together, let man not separate."

10When they were in the house again, the disciples asked Jesus about this. 11He answered, "Anyone who divorces his wife and marries another woman commits adultery against her. 12And if she divorces her husband and marries another man, she commits adultery."

One of the key points that I think Jesus is pointing out to us is that when we marry, we are no longer two individual people, we are one person. God has designed man and woman to experience a joining of hearts, minds and bodies that transcends mere living together for economic and sexual benefits.

Marriage can be just that -- a joining of convenience -- but when it is so, it misses the deep joy and satisfaction that the Creator intended a man and a woman together. God made us to be one.

Alberta wind generators pump out the megawatts

On a recent trip from Montana to Alberta, Canada, we traveled across a portion of province new to us, the SW corner. We had overnighted at Waterton Park and were traveling NE to visit some friends in Calgary.

The Energy Logics Pincher Creek project pumps out hundreds of megawatts, it turns out. The view is stunning. The picture above, and the audio below tells a bit about what we saw.

Illegal immigration

It's hard to miss the loud noises made by legions of illegal immigrants and their supporters in recent weeks. But we should not mistake loud noises for the voice of rational public policy. Legitimizing illegal immigrants would be dangerous for the United States of America.

I am the offspring of immigrants who came to America from many lands. Most Americans are, of course. We are a nation of immigrants, and that has been good for America.

But, illegal immigration should not be pardoned, and it must be stopped. Let those who come to our country come under law. It doesnÂ’t matter to me that there are large rallies supporting illegal immigrants. Legalizing those who enter illegally makes a mockery of our system of laws.

Most important to me is acculturation of immigrants. Public policy that allows our nation to contain more than one dominant culture sets us on the path to national suicide. It is wonderful that people speak languages other than English, but English must be our common language. My grandparents spoke Swedish. It is my pleasure to also understand Swedish. But my grandparents' first language was English, because their parents understood the importance of becoming part of part of the fabric of this nation.

What's the answer to these problems?

1. Deport illegal immigrants
2. Penalize employers who pay illegal immigrants under the table
3. Make our borders much more difficult to cross illegally
4. Henceforth, forever deny citizenship to illegal immigrants
5. Require reasonable proficiency in English as a condition of citizenship

Are these easy solutions? No. Are they happy solutions? No. Are they inexpensive solutions? No.

But the alternative is worse. Generations of earlier immigrants have come legally and they have become part of the tapestry of the United States. The current generation of illegal immigrants has come illegally, and many seem intent to set up their own culture with its own language in the SW United States separate from our national culture. They are stealing a part of our country. If they came armed, we would drive them out by force. Why is this any different?

If we are to be "one nation, indivisible" illegal immigration cannot continue.