Moving furniture, if nothing else,will make you feel your age. At the top end of “Generation X” it was not until this year that I became fully aware that no longer am I part of the young crowd. I’ve got new exciting colleages who are “Gen-Y” and as I moved furniture around this beautiful castle yesterday, today every bone in my body aches. And I am not the only one aching with age.
This week we are preparing for our third memorial in the past 3 months, averaging one a month is sad! Since I’ve been here we have yet to lose any of our feistier older folks, our weekly regulars, but those lost are beloved friends of decades. They are people who brought music and laughter in our midst, and our hearts are heavy. It also has some of our older members feeling their age, and our younger ones as well as they say goodbye to people they’ve known since childhood and they can reflect on years and years of love. Youth saying, “she was a grandma to me,” people in my age group, “they were the same age as my mom,” all aware that life, days and years are passing.
The joy in all this is the constant sharing of stories, and the new awakening to the wonder of our castle, which now is one of the oldest church buildings being utilized for its intended use, the worship of an awesome God. The ancestors and neighbors who have gone before us created this space, this beautiful, playful, graceful place to celebrate the Kingdom of God, the Kingdom of Love.
When we were blessed with an “expert” in Emergent Worship, right as we were preparing to launch into our revitalization plan (new seminary grad who specialized in Emergent Worship, Paul Belk) we were encouraged by his insights into remodeling our chapel space. “Let the space speak for itself.” We had an affirmation of what was on our hearts, authentic worship, in an authentic environment. Our church is a 100+ year old castle, it needs to speak as our hearts do, its age. There is nothing wrong with being 100+ years old if you are a person or a building.
This message has translated very well into our remodel of several rooms, but it also translates well to us: be authentic to yourself and your age. Sometimes it is just TIME to pass things on to younger folks, sometimes it is ESSENTIAL to pass along the wisdom and stories of the older generations to the younger, ALWAYS it is good to listen with grace to the authentic words on the hearts of people of all ages.
How is your faith and life a reflection of your age and place in time and history? How do you honor this?