Articles
Help! I've Fallen & I Can't Get Up
Weren’t those words funny the first time you heard them? Do you remember the commercial? It was the one advertising the alert necklace worn around the neck to summons medics in case of an emergency. It wasn’t funny that a woman had fallen in her home. It was funny because the acting job was terrible as she cried out, “Help! I’ve fallen and I can’t get up!” It was obvious she hadn’t really fallen. She deliberately laid down along with her walker and pretended she couldn’t get up. Since that time, the phrase has become common and the cause for laughter. But I am made to think. Among the Lord’s people, does it happen that some give in to old age and quit, when God knows some of the greatest good can be done in those years?
Admittedly, old age does bring its difficulties. One of the most beautiful descriptions of those years is found in Ecclesiastes 12. There we see “keepers of the house” trembling (perhaps a reference to an old homemaker’s hands) and where “strong men bow down” (a stooped old man) and a time when “grinders cease because they are few” (lost teeth). I am remembering a time when I was in a weight room and an aged gentleman was doing shrugs. See his shoulders moving up and down with dumbells resisting? At the end, he exhaled mightily and (clank) I heard something hit the floor. It was his teeth!! As he picked them up and walked to the water fountain to wash them off, I wondered if he was thinking of the days he had entered and saying “I have no pleasure in them” (Eccl. 12:1). Indeed, old age does bring difficulties.
King David found out how discouraging agedness could be. Imagine this old warrior who had killed his “ten thousands” including the intimidating Goliath. With ease, he has killed giants. But the day comes when he tries yet once more and grows faint. The nation encourages him to stay home and not go out to battle any more “lest you quench the lamp of Israel” (2 Sam. 21:15-17). The thing he had done best all of his life he can no longer do. That hurts. If we live long enough, we will all live to see such days. Yet, listen. Just because one can’t kill giants anymore doesn’t mean he is no longer needed. David was the “light” of the nation. They needed him desperately for his wisdom and they took great pains to take good care of him (1 Kings 1:1-4). The same is true for the aged among God’s people today. We need you!!
Old age provides no excuse for retiring on God. Simeon was an old man when he waited and looked for the Messiah in the temple (Lk. 2:25-35) and Anna was a widow of about eighty-four years who did not depart from the temple but served God (Lk. 2:36-38). Some have estimated Paul to be in his sixties when he wrote Philippians and encouraged Christians to “press on” – strain every ligament to finish the race (Phil. 3:12-14). Does that sound like people who were quitting? We may draw social security but we can never retire on the Lord. We must serve him as long as we have breath to do it!!
The Bible is not the only place we find such great examples in old age. I’ve see them around me as well. There’s the blind man I know who takes his turn at the worship services with Bible reading. He memorizes entire chapters by listening to them on tape. Can you see him reciting John 14? Visit the first few words of the chapter and picture a blind man with dark glasses saying them. There’s the preacher who continued to preach, watching his length because he wore “Depends” undergarments. I think of the lady dying with cancer who begged God to die at home but instead was made to live out the last few days at the hospital. Nurses once asked, “Can we do anything for you?” To which she replied, “Yes, you can sing “Amazing Grace” with me. Can you hear her shaky voice starting the song? And when she slipped into eternity, Christians around her bed sang, nurses cried and a doctor was moved to speak of the impression members of the “church of Christ” had made on him.
See what I mean? These people rob us of our excuses for not giving God our all. The Lord knows what we have left in us and He will ask for every bit of it (Psa. 103:11-18). He still looks for fruit in old age (Psa. 92:12-14). Don’t lay down. There remains a rest (Rev. 14:13), but it’s after death. Now is not the time. Those of us who are younger need to see you “gutting it out” in the homestretch demonstrating that this race can be won. We admire and are looking to the “silver-haired head” (Proverbs 16:31). We need your knowledge, your wisdom and your counsel. You are the lamps of Israel!
