The Paradox of Grandma Beulah
The Paradox of Grandma Beulah
Some years back, O.C. Marler stopped me after an event with this advice:
Never reach a point in life
where you don’t have something meaningful to do.
Let’s leave that statement laying there for now. The following may get me in trouble which has happened before.
Our Grandma Beulah was a steadfast believer. She’d served the Lord through difficult times. Leaving behind a houseful of kids, Grandpa Benny, who had been a church planter, left for someone else. He was gone for over a decade.
Grandma Beulah is to be admired for her steadfastness. She was consistent to church and raised her family to serve Jesus. Today, at least five of her grandkids are in ministry, plus some great-grandkids. When Grandpa Benny returned, he and Grandma Beulah reconciled. He returned to the Lord Jesus and faithfully served God the rest of his life.
Grandma Beulah - the Paradox
All above is true. Yet as the years passed, Grandma Beulah though up and about, loving to travel and seldom bed-fast lived sick.
She was sick now, though standing in an aisle at Mac’s Big Star.
Had just been sick,
Or she felt something coming on.
An aunt said that Grandma Beulah never left home without having a bottle of aspirin and thermometer in her purse.
As big as the purse was Grandma Beulah may have had equipment for:
Blood pressure
Heart rate
Plus, a stethoscope.
But I digress. The sick, just sick, and about to be sick defined the last 1/3 of Grandma Beulah’s life.
Paradox - confident faith on one hand while at the same time perpetually identifying with one ailment or another.
In Clovis Chappell’s book, If I Were Young has this:
A woman he was acquainted with was genuinely earnest and fancied herself deeply religious. But for years she had nothing to do except check her own pulse, look at her own tongue, and give a blow-by-blow description of the way her nerves had been acting. This had gone on so long that is she were to wake up tomorrow morning as strong as heavy-weight champion, Joe Louis, she would still pity herself for being a hopeless invalid.
Chappell’s conclusion: One secret of the woman’s sickness is that she has nothing else to do.
What was it Elder Marler said? Something about, never reach a point in life where you have nothing meaningful to do. The paradox that was Grandma Beulah may well be that in the mature years of life she had nothing meaningful to do.
Being sedentary is one of the leading causes of illness among those of the Sage age. I’ve an idea that becoming a spiritual couch potato is also not healthy.
UPCI Sages 55+ is ministry BY those who are in the grand season of life. Kids gone, time on your hands, skill, wisdom gained from tough experiences. Notice the capitalized BY.
What can you do? And I hear the rumbling, “I can’t do what I once did.”
That was not the question. The question was what can you do - now!
Take the aspirin out of your pocket and the thermometer out of your purse. You are not done yet.
Contrasted to my Grandma Beulah, I’ve a picture of a great-aunt at 92, working in the garden. She was carrying a watermelon that weighed twenty pounds or more.
Most of us are not done, until we decide we are done. Do something meaningful - start today.
In the spring, plant a small garden. Don’t need all the food? Give the produce to the poor of the community.
Build birdhouses and give them away.
Volunteer to read to, and listen to fifth graders who struggle with reading.
Develop a prayer list of those aged fourteen to twenty-five. These are years when the most significant decisions of life are made. Get pictures of them, pray specifically about each person, and what they are experiencing at their age.
Speak a positive word to influencers - whether it is your pastor, the Director of Sunday School, or those who work with Youth.
Develop a card ministry. Yes, postage is expensive, but you could hand-deliver the cards while at church or have the hospitality team deliver them for you.
Start a Sage age choir. The key to having more people in your Sage age ministry is to involve more people.
Want to help fund the expansion of Sages International and really feeling your oats? Start a thrift store named From Thursday On. Open for business Thursday - Saturday. The store manned by you and volunteers. Every thrift store in North America is overflowing with inventory. The proceeds of From Thursday On can help some who are less fortunate participate in a Church-in-a-Day project or be part of a Sages Mission experience.
You are not like Clovis Chappell’s acquaintance, or at least you don’t have to be. Decide you have something meaningful to do and do it.
Don’t be faithful to Jesus on one hand and miserable in Jesus on the other. Be busy with intent.
You have ideas and are participating in grand things already. Please pass these on to the team at UPCI Sages. My ministry email address is sagesdirector@upci.org.