By Jeb Egbert
(Glendora church was visited on June 16 by Dr. Jeb Egbert, provost of Pacific Coast University, a former youth director of our denomination and a partial “product” of the local Glendora Church along with his wife, Barbara, who helps lead our regional Women’s Ministry.)
I can tell many stories of my time here in Glendora in the 1980s – the basketball games, the youth activities, the time my wife was anointed for healing when our first child was overdue and then successfully delivered. Those are great memories and we all have them. But as we gracefully age I’d like to cover five points that may help us make the most of the future.
First, enjoy the Journey. To do that our focus must be outward, not inward. We focus on God’s Providence and blessings, not that we used to have 400 people here or linger on our own aches and pains. The word of God transcends all that stuff. As we get older my wife and I are more huggers and encouragers of young people than we are working away in the trenches with their daily struggles.
I learned a lot in this church and now that I have 3000 students I feel responsible for I can say that life gives you ever new opportunities to make a difference.
Second, take care of yourself. That’s not a wrong focus. I just read a top-level study that concluded – guess what – that the key things we need to do is eat healthy, get exercise, drink moderately, don’t smoke. Now that wasn’t something we didn’t know already. Taking care of yourself means you take time to celebrate victories and occasions such as we’re doing here today – 40 years of the Glendora church. How easy to let those precious experiences and victories slip through our hands as we walked arm and arm together through the Christian life.
Third, do some things that have meaning. My in-laws, the Quillens, retired from ministry long ago but now make and paint toys for children. They’re still in the game. Still contributing. My mom was widowed in 2003 but recently took a 9000 mile journey from Charlotte, North Carolina across the United States, up through Montreal, Canada to meet up with my recently-widowed sisters. Two widows making this incredible journey all over North America – Thelma and Louise I call them. They’re still punching. Still in this game called life.
Fourth, do one small thing in ministry. Paul told Titus how the older people in his churches could help teach younger people. Let me tell you about Melvein Allen. He was in his 70s and worked as a handyman at our Summer Camp in Orr, Minnesota. I asked him if he would like to be a “dorm parent” for one of the boys’ dorms. That meant dropping in, conversing, and engaging them on a little deeper level. He protested that he had never done things like that before. But I told him he had one magic trait – “you love these kids.”
Well, he did it and it worked out for him and the boys. It makes a big difference when older people can close the circle with young people especially. They feed off each other positively.
Fifth, hide your life in Jesus. Jesus will be around forever, it says in Hebrews 13:8. So when he is alive within you, you are always up-to-date, always relevant. It doesn’t take much. I always remember a lady in our Los Angeles church in the 1960s who was famous for only one thing – she brought us kids candy each time there was church. Now that seems small but here I am in my 50s still talking about it. This lady obviously had Jesus inside of her and He had made it possible for her to serve even in something as small as giving candy.
Let me end off with the example of Caleb. You first meet Caleb in Numbers 13. He was one of the 12 spies Moses sent to spy out the Promised Land. Ten of the twelve spies looked at the difficulties and said it couldn’t be done – the Israelites could not take on the giants. But Caleb and Joshua were different. “We can certainly do it” (Numbers 13:30), they maintained. “The Lord is with us, do not be afraid of them” Caleb and Joshua argued (Numbers 14:9).
Those were two men who had hidden their lives in the Lord.
Well, you know the story. That whole generation was kept out of the Land except Caleb and Joshua. But that’s not the end of Caleb’s story. In Joshua 14 Caleb asked Joshua for a piece of land already occupied by the giants. He knew he would have to fight them to drive them out. But Caleb was not afraid. He tells us he was 40 when he was a zealous young spy and now here he was aged 85 and well able to drive them out – “the Lord helping me” (verse 12).
He had buried himself in the Lord and was just as vigorous and whole-hearted at 85 as ever. We can be like that too. When we hide our lives in Jesus we can make a difference in our families and in our communities and in whatever opportunities arise.
As we celebrate our congregation’s 40th anniversary, and as we observe the aging of our congregation, let’s consider these points to remain relevant, active and engaged in the continuing work of our Lord. As Robert Browning said, “Grow old with me. The best is yet to be!”