Dancing the Waves: A Meditation on Aging
Have you ever wondered why nothing in our schooling adequately prepares us for aging? Oh, we see it in others, but the immortality of youth refuses to yield, until that first twinge in a joint or a receding hairline. Then there are those who talk about aging gracefully, a phrase that shouts condemnation at me every time I’m exhausted and feel unable to do another thing. At the end of the day, it is a rude awakening to discover how fragile we are. Living longer is not the same as living healthier—something we cannot fully control. Even the wealthy are not spared the ravages of aging. The only thing we can control is how we face it.
Who was that boarding a plane in 1982
As I ponder these things, I’m reminded of the things I did when I was younger. How did I find the courage to board a plane to Israel in 1982—with a one-way ticket? I had no human guarantee that I’d be staying in Israel—only the witness of the Holy Spirit in my heart. I clung to His assurances. Even boarding the plane, no one really accepted that I had no idea when I’d return.
I still recall writing letters to all the credit card companies to which I owed money. I told them to to continue sending the bills. I was leaving the country but not my obligations, and as soon as I could afford it, I’d pay them. I gave them a different address in the US to send mail to. Again, I had no income planned when I got on the plane. I just knew God would provide. He said He would take care of me, and I clung to that. Some 6 months after I left the US, I received a letter advising that all my debts had been paid by people whom I’d never met who heard about me, and felt led to lift that burden from my shoulders!
And I wonder what happened to me. I haven’t traveled by plane since 2018. Plans were nixed first by the pandemic, and now by the knowledge that I would find that kind of travel just too difficult physically, unless I could travel business or first class—and even then I’m not so sure. I’m clinging to the Lord for strength to just make it to work four days a week. (Nope, I’ve still not retired—long story!)
Who is that in the mirror
There are days when I look in the mirror and am not quite sure who I’m seeing? Sometimes I am amazed at how like my mother and her mother I look. Other times I see my father, and when next to my first cousins, I’m amazed how similar we look.
I see a face that changes with how I feel; a smile that is not quite as bright as it used to be, sometimes with gritted teeth as I try to hide how I’m feeling. Or holding back the tears when sitting during a worship service while everyone else stands. It’s just too hard to stand that long.
Then the thought struck me: Do I look like Jesus?
His is the reflection in the mirror I can’t quite see, as Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 13:12.
A storm with waves—a real shore—unseen
In my living room I have a painting that greatly encourages me. It is a version of the ark and yet not quite. Minor differences from the Genesis account give the ark in the painting a sense of relevance, even now. That storm and that ship are in every time and every sea.
With this painting inspiring me, and the above thoughts in my mind, I wrote my first poem in quite a while. I hope it blesses you as much as it did me.
Dancing the Waves
Lord—where are You?
I look at the storm
and even floating the waves
feels like too much.
And You ask,
“Walk the waves
with Me.”
Is such a dance even possible?
Not the tread of foot
on water turned solid
but a balanced waltz
on foaming curved water crests,
the peak before the curling down
and thunderous crash—
followed by a ripple
turned wave
to foam and crest anew.
Each downward flowing crash
relentlessly driving to shore.
And there they are:
A joy-filled God dancing
with His child
from crest to crest,
sea-soaked with
salty perfume.
They too will reach the shore
but not with a foaming
roar.
And His child laughs with glee,
“Let’s do it again!”
Now He laughs.
“Such a dance comes only once—for those who will.
Dance it well.”
Proverbs 31:25 “She can laugh at the days to come…”
Hope in God Never Disappoints
As I anticipate a planned three-day hospitalization for diagnostic tests and perhaps a minor surgical treatment to treat a long-standing problem that has led to anemia, I am filled with joy that is found only in the God of my salvation. I realize that I’ve been dancing the waves my whole life. The only difference is that the waves have changed in height and intensity. If I’m supposed to travel to the states for a longed for visit with family and friends, He will give me the strength to leap to that cresting wave and enjoy the exhilerating thrill of the height and glide downward until He brings me to the next cresting wave.
My Savior is with me. The Jesus who called Peter to step out of the boat is my Savior and Friend. The same Jesus who warned Peter that, when he was old, he would walk a path he never would have chosen, is my Jesus today. And in His warning there was the unstated yet obvious assurance, “But I will be with you.”
Many of you, my subscribers, are in this same season of life. I know that because so many of you have been friends dating back to my college days. In these times, troubled like the turbulent seas, I believe your Savior is reaching out His hand to you, like He is to me, asking us to walk and dare to dance the waves with Him.
There is only one way to age well, and that is with our precious Savior faithfully guiding us. Our job, as always is just to follow. I dare to say that dancing the waves is not very graceful at times, and neither is aging. At least it isn’t for me. But despite the physical challenges and emotional swings, He is with us.
May the world be confounded by passionate older people who dance the waves of aging and refuse to let aging drown their hope.
It seemed to me that this song was an appropriate way to end this post. At the end of the day, our hope is in our Savior Yeshua (Jesus).
