A Call to Care and Pray

Living in the United States, it is so easy to relegate to the back of our minds that Christians in the past have suffered a great deal for their faith. We can also hear the evening news about suffering in Egypt and Iran and elsewhere at times, and pass it off as news, but of little relevance for us in this country. How can this casualness of suffering of fellow Christians today sink into our consciousness as it should when many churches buildings and Christians have been attacked in Egypt in the past 6 months? Very recently, Christians in Iran have been arrested for sharing in the Lord's Supper, because they used wine, how can we be indifferent?

I suggest we listen more carefully to the news and make it a matter of concerted prayer to pray for these who suffer by the hands of those who want to eradicate the Christian faith just as much as Communism tried in the last century in the USSR and other places.

We can pray that persecuted Christian can be strong and not waver.

That they will be bold and discreet in their witness for Christ.

That God will open the eyes of these who see the faith of believers and realize that Jesus is Lord.

That God will frustrate the plans and schemes and of those hostile to Christians.

That the Gospel will flourish especially in Muslim countries even if it has to be underground.

        Praying earnestly and without ceasing for our suffering Christian friends has never been more urgent. Will we be faithful and not hear news so casually- doing what we can?

               SEVENTY THINGS I WANT TO DO IN MY REMAINING DAYS

                                              Up-Dated at 80 Years                                                                                                       
                                                    (Do, Go, Become, Learn)

       (These items were written from 2005 to 2007 and in 2017 and now- in 2018- may be updated on the progress        I have made or am making: “doing”, or “done”.)

                                 Teach us to number our days

                                 That we may apply our hearts to wisdom. Psalms 90:12

1. Spend time with my grand children and great grandchildren, learning to really know them as well, and tell them all the wonderful things I have experienced and learned in my life.

2. Write my biography for who ever might want to know what my life was all about.           (Nearly up-to-date on this.)

3. Learn to relax when I have to.(Quite well)

4. Write essays of things important to me as long as I can. (doing)

5. Cultivate a life of thought and word and relationships worthy of my eternal goal.

6. Travel to Canada again where we lived for 2 years. (Done)

7. Accept the aging process to the end and celebrate God’s goodness in it all. (Doing)

8. Revisit Belize periodically as long as I am able to see the personal growth of the persons we knew in our life there. (Done)

9. Exercise an optimistic view of life regardless what happens to me personally.(Working on it)

10. Learn from those older than me, how to grow older gracefully.

11. Dispose of as much of our wealth as I can for service in the Kingdom and to others while I live, laying up treasure in heaven.

12. Have my hands in the soil and cultivate plants, perhaps have a green house as a living room in my retirement home. (Doing first part)

13. Be more and more, a person of prayer, especially in intercession for the church, missions, and our family. (Doing, and for the world of need)

14. Be a person of interest to my posterity so that they will want to know what the basic motivations of my life have been. (Doing)

15. Live a life of good physical and mental health and function well into my later years, perhaps in the models of my Uncle Manasseh and Grandma Bender.

16. Become a writer for the public on social issues such as education in Belize and materialism and provincialism in the States.

17. Radically diminish my accumulated possessions so that my posterity will only need to sort through what remained significant and essential to my life when I am leaving. (Struggling here)

18. Rewrite my will and keep it updated about every 10-15 years. (Working on it)

19. Keep my wife happy while following the call of God in my life.

20. Help my children and grand children come to a life of meaning where they can also relax and see the lighter side of life and have a sense of humor about life in general.

21. Enjoy as many fruit trees I can in Belize and if there is time left when we get back to the States, do something of that there- maybe with miniature or dwarf trees. (Done, doing)

22. I would like to read the Bible regularly or through in one year to catch all the little details I may have been missing and as a challenge to discipline myself to daily reading in the Scriptures.

23. Keep my mind active and vigorous through reading mature stuff, writing, and relating to people with precise, creative, poetic and acute verbalization.

24. Live in Belize as long as I can, health and marital happiness permitting. (Done)

25. See my great grandchildren growing up as true children of God. (Just beginning!)

26. Grow in the image of Christ, bringing all things, mind, feelings, and heart into his likeness. (Still working at it!)

27. Learn to be more understanding of my wife even when I may not understand her.(Making Progress)

28. Learn to keep my head when all around me are losing theirs and blaming it on me; learning rather to be scapegoat when one is needed.

29. Keep my self esteem intact when others doubt its worthiness, with an open mind.

30. Refuse to stop doing something constructive just because people think I should be retiring or operating a rocking chair. 

31. Cultivate mental astuteness and alertness in every way possible- reading, writing, perhaps memorizing, and deliberate analytical thinking, keeping up with world events, and delving into subjects of new interest. (Doing)

32. Maintain conversational spontaneity and develop it more fully with all ages of persons and backgrounds. (It's not easy)

33. Staying in the mainstream of life of family, church, community, not withdrawing.

34. Learn to play several musical instruments reasonably well, like violin, guitar, or keyboard.

35. Communicate on the internet, perhaps blogging, and especially making available to the internet public, my writings about my family biography, devotional materials and other matters of interest that I write. (Doing, esp blogginssics I have never read such as Robinson Crusoe, and non classic of the Left Behind series, #15-30, and some others.

38. To constantly see new believers in the fellowship where I am as long as I live, specifically the boys who stayed at our home for a good while and all the single mothers we have helped a lot.

39. To see and enjoy fruit from the some 30 different fruit trees I have planted in Belize, and have a new orchard of considerable variety of fruit trees, should I ever be able to do so back in the States. (Also in 21 above)

40. To start looking forward to the next life with anticipation, imagination and confidence. (Doing)

41. Structure my values and activities so that I will have minimal regrets the last decade of my life. (Trying)

42. Inform and prepare my children and grandchildren about the aging process as we are all growing older at the same rate at what ever stage each of us is.

43, Develop a philosophy of aging that will serve me well as well as my posterity.

44. Clean up my past emotional baggage and the present dependencies so that I can be a stable person as much as possible in order to face diminishing capacities in the latter years.

45. Maintain a healthy sense of humor about life and myself. As well as not taking myself too seriously. (Doing)

46. Consider what I want to be said at my Transitional Celebration (Funeral) keeping my legacy goals clear.
    
    
    47. Take my time and hike up to one or more of the beautiful, high water falls in Belize, several of which are within 25 miles from here. (A lost cause!)

48. Make better use of my time than thinking up lists to exercise my memory and possibly bore other people.

49. Take a leisure trip throughout Central America.

50. Move back to Indiana while still in reasonable health and strength in order to be a blessing to my family and who ever. (Done)

51. See structures for some of the work we are doing in Belize such as a youth center, a youth home, a food supply pantry, a scholarship system.(Failed)

(Credit to IRTA Newsletter for next items, #52-60)

52. Take care of my health with reference to eating, exercising, napping, and cultivating healthy attitudes of faith and optimism, humor, and forgiveness at all times. (Doing)

53. Take deliberate care in driving and all activities, keeping focused to avoid accidents and mishaps. (Doing)

54. Learn some new skill or hobby when I need to refocus from service and labor to something more sedate.

55. Avoid getting caught up with any ailment and talking about it until family and others get bored and tired of me.(Blessed so far)

56. Recognize that every day is a gift of God to be used and lived in gratitude to its Giver.

57. Entertain my great grandchildren in our home as much as possible as long as it is possible as my grandchildren reach maturity, doing the same with them until…(6 and counting)

58. Getting professional advice on my health regularly and using good judgment in following their advice.

59. Be involved in service, hobby, or recreational organizations appropriate to my ability to contribute and receive worthwhile stimulation.

60. Use quiet times of waiting for constructive meditation, reflection, and fellowship with God.

61. Develop new friendships as the settings of living may shift from time to time.

62. Continue developing an optimal marital relationship through openness to my own personality and weaknesses, and focusing on her qualities that surpass my own, affirming her as much as I can, speaking her main languages of love including gifts, making up for lost opportunities of the past.

63. Maintain some goals in life constantly so as to keep on track going somewhere, not getting lost and sidetracked by the attractions of a secular and worldly society.

64. Go on at least one trip per year to a place I have never been before.

65. Attend the Belize Reunion in Pennsylvania every few years and visiting my brothers and families in the east as well.

66. Develop new foci in my life as situations of health and gradual retirement indicate, making use of the talents I have to the glory of God.

67. Continue in openness to God for his revelation of himself and his will for me.

68. Cultivate an open and supportive relationship with my wife as long as we both shall live.

69. Be open to the correction and help I will need from others in my waning days.

70. Prepare for the final exam.(Studying about this)

                                           Updated at Eighty Years

71. Take care of myself, my wife and my home as well as well as I can.

72 Following through with my Great grandchildren (6 now) and be as close to them.as I can hoping that as many as can will have some memories of me.

73. Be active and reaching out to people close to us outside of our family, like neighbors tenants, and our close Belizean friends to encourage them in the Christian way of life.

 74. To pray every day for many- missionaries, especially those in our families, for new believers, persecuted ones, young church leaders, for our own congregation, for our government leaders, and for God to foil the ways and plans of evil doers who cause much harm to people, as well as for God's comfort to impoverish persons, refugees, and others who suffer.

      

 75. To seek to be good stewards of our wealth and use it for the good of others as well as for ourselves.

 76. To encourage a mission interest and focus tor our grandchildren and be supportive to those sensing a call to serve in mission and church ministries.

77. Continue in a writing outreach through blogging and other writing beyond  what I have done and make use of other social media as I find ways of doing a broader writing out reach.

78. Enjoy the outdoors as a praise to God, sharing with him the joy of his creation and wonder of         beauty, growth, and the cycles of life.

79. Keep my wife as happy as I can.

80.  Keep growing in faith and knowledge of the wonders of life in a relationship with our Heavenly Father.

Science and the Bible. But they differ in epistemology, the way that knowledge is perceived and acquired. They also differ in a very different worldview. Let us see the two sources of differences of Biblical knowledge and scientific knowledge.

It should never be assumed that science and the Bible generally agree. They may at many points because they are both sources of knowledge and understanding of reality as people understand reality. 

Science assumes basically that the only reality that we really know about is that which we can perceive with our physical senses. That which we can prove and test in a laboratory is true reality, science declares. What we can’t prove must be theory or personal belief until we can prove it. It can not be asserted with confidence to be true.

The Bible on the other hand assumes that reality can be perceived by faith. By believing in God, one can know that God is. And by experiencing what can be experienced in our heart or whole person is reality as much as what we can prove in a laboratory. By faith we know a lot of truth so clearly that we base and structure our whole life on it. We do not ignore what we can learn by science, but we believe there is more than can be perceived than in the laboratory by human tools and methods.

Science assumes a world view that does not need any God, as God is not subject to lab testing and not reality in the scientific sense. Regardless of what short fall there is in science such as the origin of matter, God can thus not be a scientific option as he is not a part a part of the scientific world view. He does not exist scientifically, i.e., as he is not ‘testable’ by human tools and predictability. This does not mean that a man can not be a scientist and a believer in God. The scientist predisposed to believe in God may find a need for God to explain what he learns in science, and he may believe in God by the logic of necessity, but not by scientific proof. The believer only believes in God by faith, and his world view assumes there is a God, which is totally logical to him. His worldview is wider than the world of the scientist, as his source of knowledge is larger, incorporating both scientific knowledge and knowledge derived by faith with a God in it.

The Bible was never written as a scientific treatise with modern scientific assumptions. It was written many years pre-science with a world view that assumes there is a God who is part of the whole existence of reality. The Bible is not limited to the knowledge of 20^th century science. It pre-existed modern science. So it does not even care to be consistent with science, since that is such a limited world view. To assume that the Bible and science agree ignores the different worldviews of the two. To assume that inspiration of the Scripture calls for scientific accuracy assumes that the measurements of science are accurate conclusive and that the Bible should agree with a nonbeliever’s assumptions. It was never written to agree with centuries' later assumption of reality. To measure the Bible by science is to measure God and reality by human standards which are contrived by human beings without a consideration and assumption that there is a God. So to ask if the Bible and science agree is to assume falsely that they should or could agree. The question is rather, how could they always agree since they begin with differ assumptions and epistemology and thus certainly will experience and see reality differently?

Science claims a monopoly on truth. That has the only real and valid dependable truth. It assumes that any other “truth” is suspect, and of inferior validity. Science has captured the confidence of American culture and made religion second class and relegated to it subjectivity, or it being only personal belief. Thus religion is judged by science that claims to be the only valid source of truth. Many Christians are also caught up in this secular religion. They have faith in man, and man’s system of belief and reality. Thus unwisely try to harmonize science and the Bible, something totally uncalled for. Why should we judge an historical document by standards set up many years after the Bible was written? The narrower view of reality can’t possibly encompass the wider view of reality portrayed in the Bible. It is like analyzing the scenery of a valley through a keyhole. Its judgments thus are bound to be limited and inaccurate.

The assumption here is that there is more than one source of truth. We have spoken here of science and religion. There is also folklore, and folk understanding of truth. Much modern alternative medicine that trusts food supplements untested by the god of the scientific community may be considered to be civilized folk medicine. There is also the world of demons and spirits that is as real to its adherents as scientific knowledge. Reincarnation is also a source of truth to some. The western world is polarized largely between the science and religion. But there are still strong remnants of superstition that are neither science nor religion. Friday the 13^th just doesn’t pass from Western thought even with all the deification of science. One should likely not lift up any system of thought and knowledge as the only source of truth. The Bible may not even have the scientific answer for cancer or many other problems of society. As heavily as Western society relies on science and somewhat on religion for truth, consideration must be give that there is knowledge that is out side of either science or religion. Telepathy and premonition may exist outside of either two main western epistemologies. Thus we must conclude with the ancient writer who declare that “now we know in part”, but perhaps later we shall know all that needs to be known.      

                                                Intro to Aging Reflections

I suppose by now most readers realize I am no youth but somewhat advanced in life. Recently I read a book, Rich in Years, by Johann C. Arnold, Plough Publishing House, that has helped me to understand more of my feelings about aging as I am experiencing it. Probably the best book I have read on the subject. Then coming onto a number of writings of the past 6 years as I was moving into this stage of life, I considered sharing with my blog audience a bit of what has happened to me. 

Clearly, every stage of life has its emphasis, but in all, it helps to have a kind of humor about our self-consciousness of our current stage of aging. Aging, of course, begins at birth. I suppose we idealize aging in early life and have second thought somewhere after middle age. Clearly a sense of humor is useful in accepting our “Senior Moments” and I am making a collection of my own.

So following are some of my ramblings as I reflected on where I was going the past years. These were written in the context of living in Belize with many visitors at our house daily, both children and youth especially. They do not reflect where I am in the 2+ years since we retired from Belize. I am still finding my way in retirement and need to consider what that means. So when you breeze through these next writings, smile, (and think) because you will go through some real changes in your life if you keep breathing long enough. If you detect some some instability, well, maintaining balance can be a challenge in aging in more ways than one.

                                WHAT IS DIFFERENT BEING SEVENTY?

                                                     (From 50 or 60)

It is more comfortable just sitting and relaxing a lot. I can meditate easily without even a book with me.

I get tired in doing only a few hours of work; I am tired in the early evening, whether or not I worked much.

I am a lot more analytical; my mind is constantly thinking through issues of the past, present or future, or just matters I come across. I wrote an essay recently on whether the Bible and science should be agreeable, for no special reason at all.

I am thinking a bit more of the ultimate future, how idyllic heaven will be in the presence of Jesus, etc. which gives me a slight thrill of the actual reality what will really be, not in some vague future but almost in the measurable and predictable future, not 50- 60 vague years away.

I can see a long distance back, some things very clearly, absolutely distinctly, while who was here this morning or what all I did today, is something of a haze and I could easily not think of some detail of what happened unless reminded.

I have doubts of my mental functioning when I mistake some of the most obvious things, like looking for the right keys when I stand at a door to unlock it; it’s worse when someone else is standing there with me. .

I am not motivated to plunge into tasks that should be reasonable to do, nor can I make long range plans easily, like, if we move, should we build, buy, or rent?

I am more mellow and can give in more easily to another person than I used to. I also do not like to argue even if I am confident I am right.

Probably I am closer to people emotionally than I used to be and persons are also emotionally closer to me and mutually wanting to express it with touch or embrace.

I am no longer consistently a morning person rather than an evening person, but both ends of the night are too short. The days are too long and the nights are too long, breaking up in the middle of either period for a break from wakefulness and sleep, yet still never do the ends meet without tiredness. The complexity of these statements is indicative of the difficulty of explaining this phenomenon. In other words, I am too tired in the evening and too tired in the morning, with often wakefulness at night and sleepiness by day.

After all, I didn’t turn 70 suddenly; I have been working at it for a long time!

                                                   I Live Cautiously

                                             January, 2009 [In Belize]

Perhaps I was over-confident, adventuresome, perhaps even reckless when I wrote “I Live Dangerously” a while ago. Perhaps I have learned a few things about myself since then. Here are some examples of the other side of my life.

1. When I get out of bed at night, I am careful what I step on lest I stumble; I walk carefully toward the door and back to bed, aware not to kneel on her tiny feet as I return to my back side of the bed.
2. When I drive on the road where there is a wash out, or deep water holes, I drive at a snail's pace, almost literally, lest I once more hit bottom and spring a leak on the oil filter or pan and occur unnecessary expense, embarrassment, and work to repair the damage.
3. I hover around the kitchen when youth are cooking for themselves, like frying an egg, so that Loretta does not find something precious food missing later, much to her dismay.
4. I disallow anyone to use the washing machine on Sundays lest we be over busy, especially when Loretta is studying for Sunday school lessons, so they don’t think Sunday is just another day; telling them they should wash school uniforms before the last day before school resumes on Mondays.
5. I relate to women with reserve lest I stir up inappropriate feelings in the hearts of those hungry for love and intimacy.
6. I lock the door to the computer room sometimes so I don’t have to drive out those off the computer when I want to do something on the computer myself.
7. Sometimes I don’t express my temporary opinion to my wife lest it gets refuted before I am really settled on it.
8. When I can see very well why she is in trouble, I may not give her the answer, knowing she wants sympathy rather than my wisdom and hindsight.
9. I am slow to tell her my burdens, problems, or accidents lest it depresses her and then I have one more problem to live with.
10. When visibility is poor on the local roads, I slow down considerably lest I come suddenly on pedestrians or bicycles.
11. When I need to oppose the ideas or desires of a youth who is demanding or short tempered, I procrastinate giving an outright negative answer, perhaps asking a question instead, showing concern, so that he can tolerate my opposition to his desires.
12. I am gentle in telling Loretta about my contentment to live in Belize indefinitely, and identifying with her in those times when I can almost imagine living back there.
13. When a certain girl who has stolen shoes and perhaps other things comes to our house for something, I warn Loretta persistently to keep an eye on her every minute and not let her get out of sight for a second lest she rob us again. I have banned her from this house.

                                                How Bad Will It Be?                                 

This morning the reality came to me that as I get older, I will most likely have more and more freak mishaps that should have been avoidable if I was more careful. It grew from the experience last night when I was driving on a road that I drive every day and I drove in the middle at one point to avoid pedestrians and as it was dark and rainy, where I knew there was a bad bump. For the third time in the last 3 weeks, I hit a bump in which the low van hit bottom in a way that the oil filter was hit and it bent back enough that all the oil escaped out in a less than a minute. (Actually one time Loretta hit one at the same place I did last night and we picked upon the offending stone and this morning we picked up several more road hazards.)  Each time I had to get a filter and 4 quarts of oil that would cost at least $30.00B [15US$] and then get it fixed by a mechanic or do it myself as I have done the two previous times.

Very recently I read that older people, 65 years and up, have one chance out of three to take a fall every year. I took mine several weeks a go when I was on the farm. There was a low ditch beside the road and I set a bucket in the middle of the ditch to step on to avoid getting my feet wet as I crossed over. I had done this before with good success. But when I came back our with a load of oranges or bananas, the bucket tipped over and I sprawled full length with my down side in the shallow water, much to the amusement of the youth with me and I laughed with them. But it was not funny at all this morning when I had to ride several miles in a drizzling rain on a borrowed bike to get that oil filter and oil and then lay down beside the van to rectify my damage to the van last night.

Old people get blamed for being careless dangerous driver as they age. So do teens. The middle aged people claim to be the best drivers. So at some point we become better drivers and then revert so that at one time we have an accident frequency precisely at the rate of teens; then I suppose we sail on dangerously until the license bureau or the police say we can no longer drive, unless we have the sense to quit when it is time or respond to our family’s evaluation of a failing grade. One older friend had us pray that he would just know when he should quit and then the next week he had a slight mishap at a junction and he felt he had his answer. We can hope for wisdom like that when our time comes.

Some people might have all the answers why people get accident prone as they get older and think we are losing something. I was very tired in the evening when I went over that bad bump in the road and I forgot it was there, also not being able to see 20-20 in the dark. As for the bucket, I took a risk like any younger person might and also have a spill. So likely some of our mishaps are as any person might have in similar situations. Perhaps also we may lack judgment at times, or sensitivity because of hearing or sight deficiency. Certainly one hopes one does not have to be senile to have accidents and mishaps. So partly it may also be a stereotype where age is blamed for some mishaps which are common to all before we are really old!

                                            AGING IDEAS

                            What Some Call the Decades of Aging

10 is older than being just a kid.

The 20's are when they think they are old enough for about anything.

30 is too old to be trusted by youth.

40 is over the hill, or when life begins- but what kind of life?

50 is the old age of youth and the youth of old age.

60 is sorta old.

70 is almost old.

80 is old.

90 is real old.

100 is really old.

110 is incredibly old!

120 is older than anyone living today, probably.

                                                 I DO MISS HER*

It is so different when she is gone. There is no one to talk to around here unless a neighbor comes around. What thoughts I have must be kept to myself. Or what joys I have I can’t share. Like glancing out the front door window and I see a rabbit hunched up in the wet grass and he just sits there for period of time. I must wait until she returns, or like when a neighbor brings me pizza and offers to bring soft drink as well. I have to eat it alone. It is different being alone.

I like reading and listening to old music and videos. But when I find an amazing video of the newborn grandson, just 12 hours old; and the beaming mother who is so full of love, joy, and total peace so soon after child birth, I must wait until she come home to share it. When I want to share it with this mother after twenty some years, she also is not there. I must retreat to the lonely house and go about my business.

My first real bout with alone-ness was the first morning after a very restless night being awake a lot with muscular aches and pains like flu or malaria. I am alone to bare my misery. When I get up, I feel just the same with tiredness as well and feel like retreating to the bed where I had no comfort before. How I wish I had someone with whom to share my misery and get some comfort! It is not too bad to sleep alone, while I am sleeping- but to wake up alone when I am miserable, that is something else. I struggled through the day and was releaved by the afternoon. But I was still alone. I called her on the phone and got a little pity, but it was nothing like her presence when I was miserable.

Then there are the little inconveniences, like deciding what to cook and then to eat it alone. The dishes still just sit there this third morning. With that cut on my thumb, I would have a good excuse to have her do them if she was here. Actually I wouldn't even have to have any excuse- she would just do them. But can I wait to have them done till she returns? What a welcome that would be to her! And a confession of my ineptness of living alone. I also then think of what it would be like if I was always alone. I think of persons I know well who have been alone for years. I just can’t imagine being happy that way. Would I get used to it? I doubt it. True, “it is not good for the man to be alone”.

*Reflections when my spouse was away in Ohio for several days, and selected to blogging when she was away volunteering at the BABE store.