From My Perspective - - -

In the debates and discussions regarding the national debt and entitlement programs, one of the talking points is that the “baby boomers” have now advanced in age where they have retired and will become recipients of Medicare and Social Security Benefits. Rather than their previous contributing into, they are now positioned to be withdrawing out of. Why? The answer is because they have reached the age of retirement. Do they deserve the benefits? As contributors into, they most assuredly should have the expectation of receiving the benefits that have been promised.

It’s interesting to hear some of the talking points in terms of how to “fix” the problem. One point that is being advanced is to raise the retirement age to 67 or 70. A point that is omitted is that the Federal Government ought to spend less and guard against waste and fraud rather than printing more money or moving secured funds into non-secured expenditures. All of this makes one think about “retirement” and whether or not one can allow for such or afford to be retired. An interesting point was raised in the May 7th, 2011 issue of World Magazine in an article by John Piper entitled, “Turning 65.” He is musing about his own life and the fact that he will turn 65 in January 2012. He did an Internet Search to determine what people accomplished after age 65. Some of what he discovered is: “Turning 65 has set me to pondering what people have done in the great years. For example, I just received a copy of the first major biography of Charles Hodge in over a century: Paul C. Gutjahr, Charles Hodge: Guardian of American Orthodoxy (Oxford, 2011). On the first page, I read, ‘When people reach their seventies, they often think their work is done. Not so with Hodge. His last years were among this most productive as he sat ensconced in his study, wielding his favorite pen to compose literally thousands of manuscript pages, which would eventually become his monumental Systematic Theology and his incisive What Is Darwinism?’ (p. vii).

So I started poking around on the internet. Here's some of what I found…At 65 Winston Churchill became Prime Minister of England, and for the next five years led the Western world to freedom. At 69 English writer and lexicographer Samuel Johnson began his last major work, The Lives of the English Poets. At 69 Ronald Reagan became the oldest man ever sworn in as president of the United States. He was reelected at 73. At 70 Benjamin Franklin helped draft the Declaration of Independence. At 77 Grandma Moses started painting. At 77 John Glenn became the oldest person to go into space. At 82 Johann Wolfgang von Goethe finished writing his famous Faust. At 82 Winston Churchill wrote A History of the English-Speaking Peoples. At 88 Michelangelo created the architectural plans for the Church of Santa Maria degli Angeli. At 89 Albert Schweitzer ran a hospital in Africa. At 89 Arthur Rubinstein performed one of his greatest recitals in Carnegie Hall. At 93 P.G. Wodehouse worked on his 97th novel, and got knighted…”

A passage of Scripture read at many funerals is Psalm 90:9-12, “All our days pass away under your wrath; we finish our years with a moan. The length of our days is seventy years-- or eight…for they quickly pass, and we fly away…Teach us to number our days aright, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.” The words of commitment and challenge utter by the Apostle Paul and recorded in II Timothy 4:7-8, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day--and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing.” The idea is to endure to the finish line – the race we run is not a 100 yard dash but a marathon. There are the encouraging words from the Lord in Isaiah 46:3-4, “Listen to me…you whom I have upheld since you were conceived, and have carried since your birth. Even to your old age and gray hairs I am he, I am he who will sustain you. I have made you and I will carry you; I will sustain you and I will rescue you…” These words are a very intimate and personal application of Psalm 23 – “The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want…” Because the Lord is my Shepherd, I have everything that I need – He lets me rest; He renews my strength; He leads me beside peaceful streams; He delivers me from fear; He prepares a feast for me; He welcomes me as His special guest. Consider these things with me!