Page 14 - February 2016 Issue 301

14 THE NEW COUNTESTHORPE HERALD
NEWS AND VIEWS FROM THE CHURCHES
GROWING OLDER?
FEBRUARY 2016
‘Remember your creator in the days of your youth, before the days of trouble come, and the years draw near when you will say, ‘I have no pleasure in them’... before the silver cord is snapped, and the golden bowl is broken, ... and the dust returns to the earth as it was, and the breath returns to
God who gave it.’
Words from Ecclesiastes Chapter 12 NRSV
So, January 6th 2016 was a very special day, and if you thought I was going to say because it was the day on which the Church celebrated the visit of the ‘Wise Men’ to Jesus, Mary and Joseph, you are wrong. If you thought it was because it was the day we took down our Christmas trees you are wrong again. It was a special day for me because it was the day on which I became eligible for a bus pass! One of the things we joke about in life is aging. Parents and grandparents say things like: ‘In my day I walked to school in the rain or the sunshine.’ We notice that police officers are almost all much younger than we are. A few years ago I made an appointment to see a solicitor and I was shocked to go into his office and find that it was a person who had been in my class at school. Like it or not, all of us grow older ... all of us age.
but deep down inside growing old is something many people dread and are willing to do anything to avoid. The cosmetic industry is a multimillion-pound business telling people how to do it. Genetic scientists are researching ways to prevent it.
But aging still happens and there is no avoiding it. It isn’t a tragedy to grow old physically, it’s an inevitability, and it is a normal part of life. Indeed it is in a way a blessing because of course there are those whose lives are cut tragically short by illness or accident.
For some people a characteristic of aging is looking back and believing that the best times are all behind them. They focus on the ‘good old days’. But people who have God’s attitude believe that the best can happen now and that it can happen in the future. They don’t let the joys, the delights and the victories of the past limit the joys of the future.
The evolution of a musician?
Despite the promises of the cosmetic
industry it is certain that we are all going
to grow old in spirit. We’ve probably all known people in their 30s who seem old in their thinking and then there are the other delightful folk, frail in body from the passing of years, with hair that turned white years ago, but their attitudes are young, they are excited, optimistic, friendly. They are not old! They are not bored nor are they boring. The greatest achievements of our lives don’t have to be limited to our younger days.
Winston Churchill’s life would have been counted a disappointing failure if he had died before he was sixty-five.
Thomas A Edison, the engineer and inventor, was busily developing new inventions when he died at 85. Michelangelo was still producing masterpieces when he was 89.
Are we getting older? Yes, we all are. We need to realize that how you finish a race is more important than how you start it. How something ends is crucial. People tend to remember how someone finishes their life better than they remember how they lived it up to that point ...
I think of the Apostle Paul, as he sat in a Roman jail, knowing martyrdom was just around the corner. Very aware that the end of his life was coming very soon, he could say with all confidence,
‘I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.’
(2 Timothy 4:7 NRSV)
Yours in Christ
Rev David G Vale, Methodist Church
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Sometimes we enjoy joking about aging, to grow old in body, but we don’t have
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A NEW START FOR H&R IN COUNTESTHORPE
We are on the move in Countesthorpe, with a new agency opening on Monday 17 August, offering:
• Six day a week opening (Monday - Friday, 9am -1pm
Saturday 9am - 12 noon)
• Customer car parking available right outside
CURRENT BRANCH
NEW AGENCY
Call into see us before Wednesday 12 August at:
2 Cosby Road, Countesthorpe
After Monday 17 August visit us at:
69 Station Road, Countesthorpe Tel: 0116 277 8384
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