Rise in the presence of the elderly ...

The Green Avenue Towers is a large apartment

complex that houses many of Altoona's

elderly who are in need of assistance.

A few years ago I was working pretty aggressively on a political campaign & decided that I wanted to go door to door in my neighborhood to promote my candidate. After I had knocked on a dozen or more doors I started noticing an undeniable pattern ... the people were mostly elderly! The gears in my head starting turning as a trekked up and down the abnormally steep hills we have in Altoona.

The very next house that I came to was slightly run down, the grass was a bit long, there were small projects here and there that looked like they had unintentionally been left undone. It was clear that the house had suffered some deterioration in recent years. After knocking and waiting for a minute a small elderly lady that looked like she was in her seventy's came to the door. The lady was quite nice and invited me in to talk about my candidate, but politics weren't the first thing on my mind ... after asking a couple of questions about her life she opened up and told me her simple story. She and her husband had moved here to work for the railroad during the booming WWII era and had decided to make Altoona their permanent home. For many years they happily lived their lives and raised their children in the area. When things started going down hill for the rail industry all of her children decided to pursue careers elsewhere which left her and her husband as the only remaining members of her family. Then, just a year prior to my visit, her husband succumbed to cancer and she was left a widow. "I'm considering selling the place," she said to me in a sad but matter-of-fact way, "I just can't handle the upkeep without any help from family."

The pattern that I was noticing was what many social commentators would call "The Brain Drain". Due to the lack of jobs that we discussed in my last blog entry, young people are moving out of the area in record numbers leaving Altoona with an older and older population. However, as I left that dear woman's house, I started to think about this whole problem from a different angle.

In our culture we have it all backwards (big surprise huh?). In our culture we are constantly re-evaluating the value of a person's life based on what they are contributing to society "right now". This dangerous way of ascribing value leaves the unborn, the severely handicapped and, yes, even the elderly in a treacherous trap. In my opinion this has led to unhealthy societal dynamics that cause the old wise sage to be replaced by the young rebel/revolutionary thinker as the icon of society.

Let me submit to you all that this IS NOT the attitude shown in the Bible toward the elderly. Consider the following passage:

"You shall stand up before the gray head and honor the face of an old man, and you shall fear your God: I am the Lord." Leviticus 19:32

In our society and in Altoona have we failed to give our older citizens the honor that the word of God commands? Don't get me wrong, I am so so excited about seeing more young people move into our area (by-thy-way, so are most of the older people) but I certainly don't want to miss the great treasure we have in our elderly population.

Don't get caught up in the "rebellion is the answer" narratives of our society ... Let's honor the elderly and rise in their presence because by this we will demonstrate our fear of God.

Today:

• Pray that God would give us respect for those who are elderly.
• Pray that God would restore broken trust between older and younger generations.
• Pray against the Spirit of the Age that would have us discard people who are of "no discernible value" to our society.