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Forum on Religion, Spirituality and Aging |
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Winter 2005 Perspectives From Elders on Spiritual StrengthsCompiled by Donald Koepke I recently had the privilege of listening to the perspectives of four older adults as they reflected on the place that spirituality has in their later life. I asked them two questions:
Following are their responses, reflecting the spiritual strengths and wisdom available to all of us as we age. Stanley Granch Newspaper Printer, Online Church Founder Philadelphia The road that I am on started in the 1950s, and it hasn't varied. I was a newspaper printer going to East Los Angeles College to gain skills to get another job so I could afford to send my son to college. I was walking out of class when I heard a voice from heaven saying, "Everything is going to be OK." It was like a heavy weight being lifted from me. I stayed at the job and put my son through college. Since then, I have pushed the 10 Commandments: If a person wants the world to be good, follow God and God's laws. One of the things that really bothers me is how much people lie, whether they be politicians or anyone. Recently, I founded a church on the Internet: the C & L Church of God, at www.awarenessfromgod.info. C stands for "common sense" and L stands for "logic." It is a church with no building, and it asks for no money. But I believe that God communicates with me and everyone. People wonder how God does that, and I say, "Who puts an idea into your head?" It's God. The challenge is to live by God's laws. People, not God, are going to destroy the world. When people ask, "Why did God do such and such?" I say "God didn't do anything. We are the ones. We are responsible." These principles have guided my life in these later years. For example, last September, I was upset with things that were happening where I am living, but God sent me to the hospital. The doctors say that I had pneumonia, but it was really God's doing so that I would quit putting my nose into things that were none of my business. God guides me. For example, I came to a place when I thought I wanted to live at a different retirement home. But God sent me to the home where I am living now, and I am getting younger every day. I am doing more. I feel fine -- like I could live forever. I am not afraid to die because I believe in the hereafter: There is something over there. Lila Kluger Wife, Mother, Grandmother Castro Valley, Calif. I didn't think that I was aging that much until recently. Now I am conscious that when I say good-bye to friends back East, it might be for the last time. My rabbi gave me a book at Yom Kippur that said, "Keep me from stagnating as I get older." That makes a lot of sense to me now. I am always talking to God. When I go the doctor, I pray, "God, help me do this," and when I get home, I say, "Thank you, God." God gives me the strength to do for myself, even with my handicaps. I believe in a higher power; I believe it now more than ever. I ask, "What am I still doing here?" I am 79 years old. I have handicaps. I miss my husband. And yet I receive such a religious feeling when I think about family. I don't know if it is tradition or religion. I didn't feel very good on Yom Kippur, yet I went to the synagogue so I could say the Yizkor (prayer for the dead). Judaism has made me more secure as I have gotten older. There is a connection that is deeper than anything else. My children are helpful -- they visit, yet they have their own life. The retirement community where I live and the beautiful people at synagogue make my life full. It's not that I don't want my family around. I just don't need them as much as I might. I am very blessed. Earl Kragnes Former AARP and Ecumenical Council Official, Teacher, Thinker Alhambra, Calif. When I was younger, I wish I had known about the advances in Biblical scholarship. That is not to say anything against my seminary training, which was conservative but not fundamentalist. But my seminary training did not ask questions about the origin and evolution of the Bible as a whole and how the Bible itself has evolved. It would have been helpful to consider the cultural and political climate that helped shape the books of the Bible. In the last 10 to 15 years, I have come across a number of marvelous books by authors such as Marcus Borg and Bishop John Shelby Spong. If I had known of such research and insights earlier, it might have changed some of my professional work. I spent 15 years as director of the Oklahoma Council of Churches, which was mainly Protestant. Later, I worked for AARP in interfaith work. I would have done that much earlier. I value my friends whether Jewish, Orthodox or Roman Catholic. Ever since I retired I have been a recorder of textbooks for the blind. I travel to Washington, D.C., once a week for two hours to read or direct the reading of textbooks and collateral reading. A book that I just finished recording is Jesus Remembered by James D. G. Gunn (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Wm. B. Eerdmans, 2003). Gunn explores the data found in the Gospels, as well as other sources, regarding Jesus and asks the question "What do we really know about Jesus?" I live at a continuing care retirement community, where I have been both the president and the dean of the School for Continuing Education, which is heavy on lecturing on various topics. The purpose is to keep older people intellectually alert. Living where we do, there are many who are withdrawn into themselves. But the people who are involved in the school are really terrific. Marge Wold Author, Educator, Mother, Wife Anaheim, Calif. In my later years, I have learned that it all doesn't depend on me; it all depends on grace. There are many passages in Romans (New Testament) that used to hit me hard. Now I bask in them: "While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." "Nothing can separate us from the love of God." I try to be happy. When shadows come, I simply say, "Thank you, God, for taking care of that." I don't just remember Scripture passages, I live in them: "Rejoice in the Lord"; "give thanks for everything." And hymns: "There is no secret what God can do." Hymns and Scripture continue to flow through my mind. I am happy. I wish I had known that happiness when I was younger. I was always trying to be good and never succeeded. Out of life, all of life, comes good. It is the nature of Him, or Her -- the nature of the spirit -- to help a person come alive. Today I am more relaxed. I don't have to try so hard. I can stop worrying. I am glad that I lived long enough to experience that peace. Others in the retirement community where I live often ask me, "Aren't you ready to go home to be with God and your husband?" I tell them, "No, I am not particularly ready to go. Life is good." And that is God's doing. Oh, I have my problems. I have macular degeneration, so I can't see quite as well as I used to. And I have my Parkinson's, which, if I didn't exercise every day, I would be bedridden. But these things just make me more dependent on God and God's grace. I was more pious when I was younger than I am now. Now I don't act pious. I simply say, "It's up to you, Lord. You are the Maker." Life continually unfolds. I give thanks that I have lived long enough to have a lot of unfoldings whereby I can see the pattern. Now the unfoldings make sense. Life is all grace. Donald Koepke is director of the Center for Spirituality and Aging, Anaheim, Calif.
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