Once De Leon Explored all around Florida, fruitlessly searching for the fabled fountain of youth. Nowadays people look to plastic surgeons, artificial joints and hormone replacement therapy — none of which is particularly effective in turning back the clock. “Oh, to be young again,” is the refrain of the elderly.
It has been said that youth is a wonderful thing — what a pity to waste it on young people. This sounds a little cynical, for to be young is wonderful, but the young don’t often appreciate what they have, and those of us who are older wish we had more of that youthful energy and enthusiasm. It’s the way somebody said, “If youth would and age could!”
Having just returned from a Bible school in England, accompanied by our 14-year old grandson, we marvel at the energy and quickness of the younger generation. They seem to have been born knowing computers. A cartoon once depicted a class of little children sitting on a mat listening to a story when the door opens and someone says, “Sorry to interrupt your class, but Johnny’s father needs him to solve a computer problem.” Our grandson fixed several little problems for our hosts in England.
Computers seem to be so smart and can store vast amounts of information, and yet they are incapable of doing anything not programmed in by the programmer. So many young people know so much, but understand so little. How to apply knowledge to the worthwhile things of life requires more than knowledge, it requires wisdom also. The young need to grow in wisdom as well as knowledge.
Someone has said that wisdom comes with age, but unfortunately sometimes old age can show up all by itself. Being old does not necessarily make one wise nor does being young imply a lack of wisdom. We need to have the wisdom to know that none of us knows all the answers, for as Paul said, “If any man think that he knoweth any thing, he knoweth nothing yet as he ought to know.”
This truth applies to young and old alike. Some youngsters seem to think that they know it all, and there is even a slogan that says, “Hire a teenager while they still know everything.” Some older ones who think they have the advantage because of their years of experience can also fall into the same trap.
Both old and young need to take the advice that the word of God should never depart out of their mouth and they should meditate therein day and night. Only the word of God can make wise the simple and reveals the foolishness of the world’s wisdom.
God’s truth doesn’t change, but our understanding of it and how to apply it to daily living does. In youth, issues seem to be black and white, and only as we mature do we begin to discover that there are varying shades of gray.
Lines must be drawn somewhere, and experience can help us know where to draw them.
Ideally, as we mature, we come to realize that we do not know all we thought we knew and we become more patient, more mellow, and more understanding, but it doesn’t always happen. Some as they advance in years become entrenched in their ways, refusing to bend or change. While we need to retain standards, we must reach out to those who are struggling.
Youth is a wonderful thing and really it is not wasted on young people. We who are older actually are still young people; we have just been young people for a longer period of time. In God’s sight we all are young, for Peter tells us a thousand years is just like a day to our Heavenly Father.
Just think, Methuselah never lived to see an entire day! If he had been born at 12:01 a.m. on Sunday morning, he would have died before Monday since he only lived 969 years of a day that is a thousand years long. Therefore, let us not glory in personal wisdom seeing that we are all young, but rather glory in the Lord and thank Him for the wisdom given us in His word.
So youth or old age is not what is important. What is important is how we spend the time and the energy that we are given in service to our King.
Solomon summed it up nicely when he said, “Be happy, young man, while you are young, and let your heart give you joy in the days of your youth. Follow the ways of your heart and whatever your eyes see, but know that for all these things God will bring you to judgment. So then, banish anxiety from your heart and cast off the troubles of your body, for youth and vigor are meaningless.”
The Origin of the Organic World – Part One