Regional Synod of Canada - Reformed Church in America

Pioneer Christian Monthly

Date - July/92

Contributor - Gardiner A. Skelly

Title - Wise or Otherwise

Topic - Aging

Away back in the year of 1954 my brother who is now a retired minister, was called to a new parish. Following what was then quite normal procedure, the congregation had chosen him from a slate of several candidates each of whom had preached for the call on successive Sundays. But now it was the first Sunday morning of his new ministry and he was in the vestry putting on his robes when, as they say in Ireland, "a knock came to the door". It was a little lady who was obviously a senior member of the congregation. They traded mutual "Good mornings" and then she said, in a confidential tone, "I just wanted you to know that I voted for you". "Well, thank you", replied my brother. "Yes," she said, "you were the only one among them who had any hair!" Telling the story, years later, my brother quipped, "I figured if it was all right for Samson to get-his job because of his hair, it must be all right for me too!"

Can you believe it? The only one who had any hair, indeed! What eccentric expectations we entertain at times regarding the office of pastor! But what was this lady actually saying? Did she really believe that a minister with an abundance of thatch would somehow be more effective than one who was already sporting an "involuntary tonsure" ?

I don't think so. In fact, if I were to make an educated guess I would be inclined to say that her statement was really a reference to age rather than to appearance; and that it was based upon the fallacious assumption that the preacher with an abundance of hair is younger and therefore more vigorous than those already bereft of such tonsorial equipment. That, I am sure was the logic which really prompted her vote.

While reflecting upon this, I was reminded of a time in my life when I pondered deeply the question, what did I have to offer in terms of ministerial leadership now that I had reached my sixtieth birthday which I did not have to offer when I was yet but a mere stripling of forty?

That is a sobering line of cogitation! But having undertaken it I reached some interesting and not entirely discomfiting conclusions. Quite apart from the obvious fact that I now had two extra decades of experience accumulated, two other important considerations surfaced in my consciousness.

First, it occurred to me that at forty, I had not yet lived with any teenagers in my family. That was a serious gap in my experience and education! But by the time I was sixty the gap had been filled as all three of our offspring moved through their teens and on into their twenties. And in the process, harrowing though it was at times, I discovered that by the Grace of God I could survive and as an additional serendipitous bonus, I could now relate supportively to other parents faced with similar crises.

And secondly, it occurred to me that at forty, death had not approached me any closer than at a distance of two generations. But by the time I was sixty my wife and I had, in the previous decade, lost both sets of parents. That brought a new experience of grief and hopefully a new dimension to ministry.

Truly, there are wonderful balancing compensations in the economy of God. The passing years which may diminish the quantity of hair, may also, by the Grace of God, increase the capacity of the heart! And after all, it is not what is on the head but what is in the heart that really matters.

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