Down and Up

As we get older, kneeling gets harder.  It is not necessarily the ego which is the issue, but the knees.  Older knees do not work quite like younger knees.  And once older knees get bent and down, getting back up again is another issue altogether.  I always remember an older guy who told me as a younger man, "When I bend over to tie my shoes, I always check around while I am down there to see if anything else needs doing."  As we put on the years, the challenge is not in getting down, but in getting up!

 

Over the years I have watched older people gather around the altar.  Some of them come and stand which is always appropriate, but some insist on kneeling.  More than just a few times, I have felt a need to lean over the altar rail and offer a hand of support while someone was rising.  As I have gotten into the seventh decade, I can appreciate more fully their struggle with desiring to do something and not being able to do it as it was done in earlier years. 

 

What I have witnessed over and over through the years it is the determination of some of the older folks to do what they felt was the right thing to do in terms of expressing their faith even when it was difficult.  I have often been amazed at the way some get to worship while dealing with what seems to be insurmountable troubles while the trouble free find the most flimsy excuse.  I have known folks who hear very little of what is being said, but still come every Sunday because they always have done so.  I remember one older widow who had very little only to give up a subscription to a newspaper so she would have something to give to a missionary.  Let it not be said that those who cannot get up once they get down have nothing to teach the rest of us.