Note: The names in this story have been changed to protect the guilty. 

I had not seen Bill in years.  The funeral of a friend is a good place to catch up on old acquaintances. Bill served as our head usher. I was just one of 17 pastors in what was at that time, the fastest growing church in America. Bill was a gifted master at his ability to move 1200 people to their cars, out of the parking lot and bring in the next 1200 and do it all in 30 minutes. He did this five times every Sunday until the new 5000 seat sanctuary was built. Bill then retired and I went elsewhere in ministry. After hugging at the cemetery, saying how good to see each other and a little joke about grey hair, I asked the big question. “So Bill, where are you going to church these days?” I never expected his response. “Oh, I haven’t been in church in four years”, he said. “Bill, what are you telling me?” I barked back.  “Hey,” Bill replied, “we did so many services all those years at… (church shall remain unnamed), I figure I am still 10 years ahead on church attendance”. 

Bill’s story is not uncommon today.  Often older persons and especially retirees garner a false sense of accomplishment. “I taught that class for years, I drove that Sunday school bus thousands of miles, I set through those long board meetings for three decades, I painted that sanctuary five times in my life, I never missed a choir practice,” etc.,  I’ve heard this, “Now it’s my time. I will go when I want to go”.  Then on top of all this justification comes the final blow, “They don’t care what us older adults think anyway, they’re just as glad when we don’t show up”. 

 If we’re not careful we build a case in our mind of both justification and pity. The enemy will convince us that when the word said, “forsake not the assembling of yourselves together”, it no longer applies to us who have, “served our time, done our duty and are not appreciated anyway”. That is not the time to “back off”, it is the time to recognize that the enemy of our soul does not lighten up because we get a little older.  If you have served your church for years or you are able to retire from some of your many responsibilities it only means you are a virtual treasure trove of experience.  Dr. Lester Sumrall used to say, “Plan to live till your at least 90. The first 30 are for learning. The second 30 is for doing. The last 30 are for teaching what you have learned and done.” We are not ahead in serving the Lord and His church. We are not even caught up. Make a new determination, the kingdom of God, my Savior, my church and my pastor will find me doing all I can do till Jesus takes me home. My body and my time may be forced to slow a bit but my heart, mind and love will never “back off”.

This week has been a combination frustration/self-education time for me.  The frustration was that I had to undergo vocal cord surgery for the fifth time in the past 15 years. The surgery was a success and I am now just waiting out the next few days in total silence. The note writing is a challenge for all who have to tolerate my handwriting skills. 

I have determined to do my part to stop this vocal cord destruction every few years. It is difficult when you are a preacher, singer, talker, sports fan and general transferer of information to the entire population. My style will now change. I will make every attempt to speak more clearly, pace my oratory a little slower, attempt to be effective without yelling, leave the umpires and referees to their own failures and write more than speak. Perhaps the most enlightening reality I have discovered during this silence is how often I would have spoken, corrected, interrupted, declared and waxed eloquent if only I could use my voice. I also realized how I would have dominated the conversation.  I have noticed how much people were waundering in their own ignorance without my verbal contradictions. Mostly I noticed without my voice I could not make the final declaration on the subject before I walked out without listening to any other opinion. 

 Boy, have I missed my voice! To my family, staff, neighbors and the general population I want to apologize for how I have made you struggle through this time without my vocal strength and leadership gifts. That is the apology I would like to give but not the apology I should give. Let me just say a big thank you for your longsuffering patience in the past and thank you, Lord, for the silence that let me not hear myself for a change and with God’s help and my friends’ continued love, I hope to have learned this valuable lesson. Speak softer, speak less, listen more and never speak so much your voice just mixes with the other usual sound pollutants we all endure. Oh! One last thing I wanted to say…No! It can wait.

So often families choose summer vacation time to plan a reunion.  Pat and I experienced this last week. We went back to the Chicago area and northern Indiana where we both were raised. The justification was to see our first great grandchild. Our children, grandchildren and baby Ashley made the journey from Florida while we flew from California. The primary purpose was to take a five-generation photo. The great great grandmother is 85, and Ashley three months. Wow! Just think, there have been 15 presidents of the United States between those two lives and one of those presidents served 14 years. 

One of the delights of a reunion is to see how big the little ones have become. Another delight is to see those family members who have become as gray haired as you.  Ageing loves company!

After all the gatherings, dinners, conversations and general memories, it takes a few days to process what the reunion produced.  My son and I used the final Saturday morning to take a little tour of my past. We visited most of the homes, or places where they once stood, from my childhood. I pointed out where all the old business places used to be and told some old stories and some new ones he had not heard. We finally just sat for awhile and talked as we gazed out over the beach, the pier and Lake Michigan. I recalled that seven generations had walked that pier over the last 117 years. When we finally rejoined the rest of the family I thought to myself, “well maybe now my son will have enough information to preach my funeral 30 or 40 years from now.”  Of all the places I revisited, there was one that will always be the most precious to me–2625 Wabash Street.  It still looks like it did on that Thanksgiving night 56 years ago when I knelt at the front altar of that white block building and asked Christ to be my Savior. That day promised me the greatest family reunion ever known to man. Oh! By the way, that reunion will never end.

My first knowledgeable introduction to a place called California was through the magic of television. How fascinating to hear the tune to “When you wish upon a star” as the “Wonderful World of Disney” would begin each Sunday evening. Soon after that tune we would hear our parents say those familiar words, “turn the T.V. off now, we have to get to church”. How I longed for just one good sick Sunday evening that would keep me home from Sunday night church. There was some solace in getting home from school in time to see “The Mickey Mouse Club” –  I mean the one with Annette Funachello.

Everyone from my era remembers when Ricky and Lucy made their famous trip to California pulling that little house trailer. Then along came “The Beverly Hillbillies” and California was to us Midwesterners swimming pools and movies stars. I was a freshman in High School when my friend, Rick Zawake, took me to his basement and played his new 45 record of some guys singing real high like girls. They sang about surfing, hanging 10, Vans, baggies and California girls.  I then understood that California was never ending summer, great tanned bodies, sun bleached hair and above all “laid back lifestyles”. So with that propaganda millions heeded Horace Greeley’s advice, “Head west young man, head west”. Not so much for the gold of 1849 but for the “laid back” and “easy living” of California.

Well we are here now. All 35 million of us. To dream upon a star we have to go miles and miles out into the desert because the massive lighted communities fade them out. To get the golden tans we have to have regular skin cancer screenings. Swimming pools have become way too expensive not counting the maintenance cost.  The movie stars have to be censored from our children’s eyes and ears and Oh Yes! About that “laid back and easy life style”, well you have to drive one or more of the 23 freeways to get to your job. Those freeways have anywhere from 8 to 20 lanes of traffic and are as busy at 2:00 am as 2:00 pm. That light in the sky most evenings is not a star but a police helicopter and baggies are now some gang-banger with his genes under his posterior. Please don’t misunderstand, I love California. It still has more variety of beauty than any other state in the U.S. I love the weather and I even love excitement found in its bustle. But it is anything but “Laid Back”.  I guess the point of all these words is simply the reminder that our happiness is in our family, friends and personal relationship with God. I am happy in California. Just as happy as one might be in a Vermont autumn, a Georgia pine forest, a Montana mountain stream, an Alaskan glacier or a Hawaiian beach. I am loved, I love others, God loves me and I love God. That works anywhere our GPS takes us.