Age and the bible

           When I was 13 the thought of growing up was probably the worst thing I feared that could happen to me. What benefit was there in being old? I always heard people recite their age and then moan helplessly about how time had passed them by with a loud sigh. With age your thinking goes from invincible to cynical or naïveté to pride, seriously what is so great about being older? David was a boy when he defeated Goliath (1 Sam 17:41), most of the disciples were around their twenties when following Jesus and Samuel was a leader since his youth (1 Sam 12:1-3). Now that I am 26 (Still young! At church we learned that in Proverbs 1 the reference to youths were those under 30) I am finally starting to fully respect people older than me for what they experienced in their own lives. Not that I did not respect any of my elders or anything like that, I just never appreciated the age difference. At our regional staff conference last year I remember Chris Nichols recalling a conversation that he had illustrating the complexity of human life, he compared the process of dismantling a toaster and then put the pieces back together versus doing that to a human being. Human life is so complex and filled with stories of loss, regret, hope and courage that at age 13 you can not even comprehend what that all looks like. I take that back, in your typical American life this is true and I am sorry for those that had to experience the complexities of human life in suffering so early. 

      I write this because I think of the passage where the adulterous woman was caught and was about to be stoned in the passage of John 8:1-11 especially verse 9 hit me like a tornado. Jesus knew exactly what to say but I wonder what he thought when his words rang true for the oldest people first. They understood the weight of what Jesus was saying when he says "if any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her" the message paraphrases like this "the sinless one among you, go first: Throw the stone" all I can say is wow such powerful statements from our God. The statement casts a mirror on their WHOLE lives, it would be different if Jesus just said, "if any of you is without sin in the last 20 minutes, let him throw the first stone" Again this shows who God is as savior but I also see this passage as an indication to what older people have gone through. I want to learn from those who are older because they have gone through so much more. 

        I used to get a bit frustrated when someone like James Choung would always mention how he was 10 years older than me, I knew he purposely did that too! But I didn't know why (haha), I did not understand until recently how different I was back then and who God has made me now. I did not realize that James was telling me he had 10 years of learning, preaching, teaching, encouraging, studying...etc. All I heard was something like, "I'm older and thus an authority figure". What hit me recently however was that James threw this statement back at me 2 weeks ago, I don't even know if he remembers. At Ignite in L.A. we had a somber divisional meeting because we found out that both James and Jeff, our supervisors for IV, were leaving next year. Everyone seemed to be in deep conversations afterward in the room and I just stepped out to get some fresh air, when I came back through the double doors I saw James working on his computer. I approached James and thanked him for focusing on Jesus in the rather tense situation and then in a sort of complaint mode said something muffled and blurted out "now there is going to be less older Asian American staff". His reply was "You're it" and mentioned that he was only 29 when he came to San Diego and how leaving also makes more space for people to step up. 

      Granted some people get older and have nothing really change in their lives, I think it is because maybe they stopped learning or maybe they just needed someone 10 years older to knock some sense into them hahah.