By Danny Minton

I sat at a table in a meeting this week with five other chaplains. As I surveyed the group, I realized that everyone around me was in their twenties. They were young and just beginning their careers, all single and with a lifetime of experiences and journeys ahead. To them, 9/11, Vietnam, Korea, Kennedy’s assassination, Alan Shepard, Sputnik, the Dallas Cowboys winning the Super Bowl, and thousands of things I experienced were only things they could read about. 

As I browsed the room of fifty to sixty hospital employees, I realized that I was the oldest person in the room. The room was full of people who had years ahead of them. They were full of future plans and desires. Some would probably go on to greater things, others would move from place to place, and some would be there twenty years from now. They will see wonders and make memories I will never know, just as big as those I experienced.

I sat down last night thinking, “When did I grow old?” It would take three of the young people sitting at my table to equal my age. I had lived three lifetimes to each of their one. As their journey begins, mine is coming to a close, full of memories and experiences. The funny thing is that I don’t feel old. Yes, I do have the aches and pains that come with a worn body, I forget things and talk to folks about “the good ole’ days of the 1950s and ‘60s.” Getting down to sit on the floor is easy; getting up is another thing. The white-haired old man I see in the mirror and the one everyone sees when they speak to me looks much older than I feel in my mind. 

As I look back, I reflect on the good and the bad of my life. Over the years, I have taught thousands of classes, shaken hands with tens of thousands, and have a million memories boxed away somewhere in my mind, some of which open up unexpectedly at times. I look at the youth and the years they have ahead, and the memories they will pack away over the decades. As for me, I may not feel old, but my body says differently.  

Like I said, “I don’t feel old.” I still work as a part-time chaplain at the hospital, serve as a CASA volunteer, serve on a tax review board, lead a church group, teach a Bible class, and write articles for “Spirit of Abilene.” By the way, did I say I’m retired?

I like what the Bible says about old people. Proverbs 20:29 (NIV2011) ^“The glory of young men is their strength, gray hair the splendor of the old.”  Proverbs 16:31 (NIV2011)  “Gray hair is a crown of splendor; it is attained in the way of righteousness.”  Psalm 92:14-15 (NIV2011) “They will still bear fruit in old age, they will stay fresh and green, proclaiming, ‘The LORD is upright; he is my Rock, and there is no wickedness in him.’” Leviticus 19:32 (NIV2011) “Stand up in the presence of the aged, show respect for the elderly and revere your God. I am the LORD. “

As Diamond C Aloes wrote in his poem, “The Shape I’m In.”

“Old age is golden, I’ve heard it said, but sometimes I wonder, as I go to bed.
With my ears in a drawer, my teeth in a cup, and my glasses on a shelf, until I get up. And when sleep dims my eyes, I say to myself, is there anything else I should lay on the shelf? The reason I know my Youth has been spent is my get-up-and-go has got-up-and-went! But really, I don’t mind, when I think with a grin, of all the places my get-up has been.”

I have no idea how many years I have ahead of me, two if I live as long as my mother and fourteen if I live as long as my dad. However, there are still roads to travel, memories to make, and hopefully time to let me use what’s left to benefit those around me. To those like me who are seeing more wrinkles and feeling more pains, you have a choice. You can sit around telling the world you are old, or you can use what is left to be a light for those around you.

Danny Minton, a member of Southern Hills Church of Christ, is a hospital chaplain