97 and Living Like Crazy

At 97, great great aunt Charlotte is one of the sharpest and most vibrantly alive human beings I know. Her friend Stevie (who has lived with Charlotte and been adopted into ourfamily for 60 years now) is the same way, but with an extra spark and humor. We arranged by email (yes email) to meet up this week for breakfast. They ambushed me with questions about my family, my life, and my ministry. They were keenly interested in the latest developments and reminded me that they pray often for us, along with all the rest of Char’s family AND Stevie’s, “76 nieces, nephews,grands, and great-grands.”

I finally got a question of my own in and then sat listening to these two young-at-heart women tell me hilarious and heartfelt stories from the last nearly 100 years about how they met, the bible studies they’ve led together, and the times they’ve gotten pulled over for speeding while singing hymns at the top of their lungs. At present, they STILL lead bible studies with 20-somethings AND 90-somethings! They’re also passionately trying to convert their entire apartment complex to their unique brand of lively, surrendered Christianity.

Their secret? They talked about an upbringing under a wise and loving pastor in a church that was passionate about the bible and an intimate daily “walk” with Jesus. “We used to sing hymns like, ‘He walks with me, and He talks with me, and tells me I am his own,’” aunt Char related. The emphasis on intimacy with God was very strong. They also cited a lifelong reading of the bible. Stevie interjected, “I’m absolutely convinced that the only lasting change for good in peoples’ lives comes through God’s Word.”

Everything in me loves who they are. And I love what they teach me about aging.

Arecent Barna study has been rattling around in my brain for weeks now. The study examined “christlikeness” in a representative sample of AmericanChristians. Studying the records of Jesus’ life, they deduced 5 attitudes and 5 behaviors that seemed to characterize Jesus alongside 5 attitudes and 5 behaviors that characterized the Pharisees. They asked people to respond to questions with a 1-4 rating and used the results to determine how many Christiansin fact emulate the attitudes and action of Jesus more than the self-righteous attitudes and actions of the Pharisees.

The result? Right around 14% of Christians across the board could be called “Christ-like”. It was 23% among evangelicals. Ouch.

One of the groups that fared worst was people over the ageof 67 (only 6% were Christ-like). I’ve suspected for a long time that age alone does not produce maturity. In many cases, it seems to harden and embitter rather than soften and improve. I’ve faced that fact with trepidation as I think about my next 10, 20, 70 years. Why does older NOT seem to equate to wiser or better? Will I be a nastier human being at 70 than I was at 20?

Yet there sitting across from me was living proof that lifelong growth and maturing is possible. As I shared my hopes and fears about aging with these beautiful ladies, they were reflective. “I wonder,” mused Stevie, “if people’s focus simply turns inward as they experience more and more loss and physical illness.” But with conviction, she related a lesson from the book of James about rejoicing in the midst of suffering and how God had taught her that lesson over and over again in her life.

It’s hard to be cynical when sitting with such women. As an Evangelical, I’m deeply suspicious of evangelicalism as a cultural institution. But in their story, I heard an evangelical faith deeply rooted deeply in a personal, authentic relationship with Jesus. I could only applaud that.

I also heard the legacy of a faith that is in fact very old. I thought of my own spiritual journey, how my wild and weird encounters with God feel raw and fresh and deep in the context of my personal experience. And I wondered how many people over thousands of years have in fact felt the same intimate relationship to a loving God in pursuit of His creation. How many people across history and cultures have not only believed the story of Jesus, but also sensed that the hero of their faith was alive and present in their daily lives? I’m heartened by the awareness that though I often feel on some wild frontier of faith and relationship with Him, I am in fact in very goodcompany.