It’s been said not to judge a book by it’s cover. Well, I’m widening that analogy to include not judging people by their hair color.
Yes, it’s true. Our society [especially my generation] are ageist. We like new, shiny, lifted and tight faces, cars, and homes. As much as I believe we are to honor and esteem the generation before, I was slapped with the reality that each of us possess prejudice in our heart.
Last week at 5:24am I rolled into the gym for their newly scheduled CORE, CARDIO & MORE! class offered for the masochistic people who work out at 5:30am. There was a smattering of folks from all walks of life; young, old, male, female. There was step bench involved so I realized that this class could flashback to the 80s and end up being a Richard Simmons disaster at any given moment. It all depended on the instructor.
In walks a short lady wearing an over sized t-shirt and blue spandex shorts. She tossed her hair and proudly announced her hair was newly frosted. [Note: No one under 40 says frosted to describe highlights. No one.] It wasn’t until she turned on the microphone and put on music that I sighed because the reality of a 55 year-old lady teaching a cardio class is like Jillian Michaels teaching a course on caring compassion. Or so I thought.
Sixty minutes later I sat on my step bench gasping for air. The spandex-donning, frosted hair Queen was as perky as ever when she bowed [yes, bowed] after class. I was shocked—the old lady knew her stuff and whooped all our derrieres!
Before we roll our eyes at the old folks, may we honor, esteem, value, and affirm their ability to still kick our butts. And then we’ll clap as they bow [yes, bow] before their Maker having fought the fight and run their race.
Appreciate, don’t denigrate those with a crown of frosted hair. As Solomon said, grey hair is a crown of splendor [Proverbs 16:32].
PREACH!
Amen! Here’s to a new year of blogging! Looking forward to your writings! 🙂
I was re-watching Christine Caine’s talk from Catalyst last week with my small group, and I think probably my favorite part in it after hearing it again was when she said that if we forget that there are people who have gone ahead of us, then we will forget that there are people to follow us. (My bad paraphrase) Great post.
Well said!
Good point 🙂 But I think hit’s important to remember that not ALL of us are like that…I respect pastors with gray hair, it means they’re SAGE in their old age! 🙂 And it is a reminder that they have life experience so they know what they’re talking about when preaching to us because they’ve BEEN THERE and have SEEN ALOT in the church and world. So yeah, I think gray hair is a great, natural look for preachers who are older.
preach it, bianca!
A few years ago I accompanied my best friend to visit her great-uncle Paul. As his wife greeted us at the door I caught a glimpse of this old, tired man with tubes attaching him to a ventilator.
We sat down and he began to tell us the story of how he had been in missionary in so many places, including China, where he’d experienced some true persecution.
At the end of the visit, I spotted a picture hanging in the hallway, dotted with Oriental faces. I asked his wife about it and she told me that the head pastor of one of the churches Uncle Paul started had heard it was Uncle Paul’s birthday and wanted to visit him. Paul gave him the phone number of a large hotel where the pastor could stay.
On Paul’s birthday, he found his front lawn and the street outside crowded!
It turned out that the congregation of that church in China loved Paul so much for all the toil he’d gone through for their sake, that they had all come to visit him and filled up the entire hotel!
He ended up preaching a sermon from his front porch to over a hundred Chinese people, in the middle of Sacramento!
That is an awesome story!!
Is age really an issue when God`s involved?
Whether 12 or 82 if God has called a person to ministry then we should honour that, incourage it and learn from them.
Amen! Let’s not despise youth or look down on our elders. God calls people of all ages to serve Him!
Love the symbolism! Thanks for sharing your light with us, Bianca:)