I just completed my 46th lap around the Sun. The next lap has just dawned and won’t set for another 364 days. There isn’t anything special about turning 46. It’s not a birthday with a zero or five at the end. It’s not a major milestone associated with a hill. It’s just another birthday, another lap around the Sun.
So why offer advice on such an occasion? Well, perhaps I was just especially pensive and reflective earlier this week. I suppose it’s partly the perspective from the changes in my life. But whatever the reason, I thought that, if I were younger, I’d like to hear these things. But then again, it’s strange being older when you used to be younger. We all start off wanting to create the life that we believe is the correct life. Successful. Strategic. Relaxing. Happy. A life that “matters”, whatever that means to whoever might say it. And yet, as youths ourselves, we really haven’t seen much. Still, we all remember when no one who was “older” could tell us something like that! Oh no, we knew all the answers and then some. “Our elders were surely mistaken! They just didn’t understand, and by the way, where did those younger counselors go? The ones Rehoboam had listened to? They sure seem like they have life figured out.” Anyways, sure that we will catch up to those guys, we run on, headlong and headstrong in our pride.
The ambition of the young is not all bad. Solomon doesn’t say to keep from doing anything, but he does say to get wisdom wherever you can find it. And that means the young among us need to listen up. But that also means something else to the old. They need to speak up. But first, they need to have some wisdom. Do I have any wisdom to offer? I’ll let you pick up your Bible and decide if that’s the case. But I do have a few lessons I have learned in my time on God’s amazing planet. I’ll offer four and a half lessons on the completion of my four and a half decades.
Lesson #1: Physical Health is a Worthy, Reasonable Stewardship.
I chose the words in this lesson on purpose. “Worthy” means that the work of learning to be healthy and then acting on that knowledge is worth it. The payoff is fewer physical problems to deal with as you age. I have had a grandfather, a father, and two fathers-in-law who all had physical health. The blessing and benefit to my family and my kids is incalculable. My dad is a former HVAC repairman, but really a general Mr. Fix-it (as long as we aren’t talking about a computer). Whenever he repairs something of mine, he reminds me that his work all comes with a lifetime warranty, “but it’s my lifetime!”
“Reasonable” means you aren’t a couch potato, but you also don’t have to be a bodybuilder. A “reasonable” plan will recommend a modicum of health. See David Mathis’ book A Little Theology of Exercise. Finally, “Stewardship” is a theological reminder that God gave you your body, and it is His temple. You are charged to care for it as you serve Him. It’s not too much to ask for you to learn to say no to seconds, walk every day, and try to do something for your strength, even if it’s just ten pushups. Injuries are no fun, and a little training goes a long way.
Lesson 2: Refer to the Church as People, not a Building or Event.
This is more than semantics for semantics sake. The way you think about what happens on Sundays will shape how you engage in the gathering on Sundays. It will also affect how you engage with the people of God’s flock during the other six days of the week. Attending a gathering on Sunday morning is commanded and greatly beneficial in so many ways, as is obvious in the Bible. But the gathering is not meant to be the only way you engage. The many “one another” commands in the New Testament aren’t limited to a 2-hour window on Sundays.
At an earlier time in my life, I loved the event of church. I liked the polish and theater. I learned that this was merely my high-school desire for entertainment, combined with a fair bit of pride in my heart. Later on, I had a much better understanding of the gathering, but still didn’t take it seriously. And while this is not the only way to gauge it, if you rush in at the last minute and out before the pastor says “amen,” you are probably missing the point. It would be worth it to read all of Paul’s letters and ask, “How would he describe what it looks like to be part of Christ’s body?”
Lesson 3: Think About Your Bible Intake Like You Think About Eating Food
I always end my course on Bible Study with this final metaphor. So many of us wonder if we have done enough when we read our Bibles. And many of us–slipping into Pharisaical performative practices–think we need to do just a bit more before God is no longer angry with us. It’s a sad and enslaving trap that captures many believers.
But if the Bible is what we need to renew our minds and direct our lives–if it is the nourishing Words of God–then why not think the same way you do when you think about food? I have found this helpful in my own walk with the Lord. The full metaphor would take a whole post to share, but I will give you a few quick thoughts. You need to eat to have energy. You can’t eat all your calories for a week in just a day. You can snack and gain weight. Take all of those and meditate on how they relate to reading your Bible, and I think you’ll start to see the point.
Lesson 4: Build a Good Theology of “The Heart”
So much of the broader church views the term “heart” solely through the Disney lens. And Disney is only concerned about following your feelings. But when you read the word “heart” in the Bible, you get a very different picture. Thinking comes from your heart (Mark 2:6). Emotions come from your heart (1 Sam. 1:8, Deut. 28:47). Speech comes from your heart (Matt. 12:34). Worries and fears come from your heart (Isa. 35:4). Understanding or misunderstanding happens in your heart (Matt. 13:15, Rom. 1:21).
Essentially, I like to explain it this way. Your heart is the part of you that lives on if you were vaporized by a nuclear bomb. It’s your “inner person” or your “immaterial self.” Jesus’ sermon on the mount talks all about sin coming from a place in us. If we think we want to murder, we are guilty of murder. If we think we want to lust, we are guilty of adultery. Those statements only make sense if my Mind/Heart is the control center of me. If that is true, then an internet filter is a good first step to overcoming a porn addiction. But don’t stop there. Ask why you love what God says is unlovely. Why do you get bored when God says something is good and true and beautiful? True change comes from this place.
One good way to understand this internal dynamic is to get a dose of the Biblical Counseling Movement. Names like Ed Welch, David Powlison, and Paul Tripp will serve you well for this purpose. But whatever you do, don’t stick with the silly idea that your heart is just your feelings, so the goal of Christianity is to feel certain “feelz.”
A Final “Half” Lesson: Create a Reading Group to Read, Pray, and Live Life Among.
I know this will seem self-serving, and yes, I’m part of a podcast that presses this very point, but it’s really true. Iron sharpens iron, and one believer edifies another. A Lone Ranger is a dead ranger according to Ecclesiastes. And wisdom is found in the Wise, not in myself. To live the Christian life alone is to court folly, but to do so while being a fool. It’s a double “whammy” as they used to say.
But when you have a group that reads good books together, and then talks about them, something else happens. Those are the ones who walk with you when your spouse gets cancer. Those are the ones who help you think through relationship issues, ministry issues, family issues, and all the other issues of your life. Honestly, this is just simply to say “be a real part of your local church and be a real friend to some of those in your church.” But hey, if it’s a group of friends who want to read good books too? Well, that seems like at least a half-lesson to me.
Maybe in another half-decade I’ll round out that last lesson. But if you really want wisdom, get reading and studying that Bible of yours, and start serving in your local church.
Thoughts Worth Thinking 