Wednesday: Mastering Relationships between Youth and Age
WEEK 9
WEDNESDAY
MASTERING RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN YOUTH AND AGE
1 John 2:12-14
We come now to another mastery—the mastery of the relationships between youth and old age. Peter, interpreting what had happened with the coming of the Holy Spirit, said:
I will pour out my Spirit on all people . . .
Your young will see visions,
Your elders will dream dreams. (Acts 2:17)
There has been a strain between youth and old age in all generations everywhere. Youth wants change, and old age wants the beloved old; one is radical, and the other is conservative. So the strain between the radical and the conservative comes to a head in the relationships between youth and old age. This happens everywhere in all ages. The oldest bit of writing in the world is a papyrus in an Istanbul museum, on which is said to be written, “Alas, times are not what they used to be. Children no longer obey their parents, and everyone wants to write a book.” Sounds modern! It is and always will be. For the two great tendencies in human nature come to embodiment in youth and old age. The tendencies are radicalism and conservatism. One wants change, and the other wants to conserve values. Both have a function in life and are needed. We need to conserve the gains and values of the past, and we need to apply those values to larger and larger areas of life. If we were all conservative, we would dry up; if we were all radical, we would blow up! We need both tendencies and need them in a living blend; we need the radically conservative and the conservatively radical. We need youth and old age in a blend.
But they have not been in a blend. Old age has for the most part dominated the destiny of the world in East and West. Hence life has hardened into custom everywhere. I have often said that the real ruler of India has not been the Mogul, the Maratha, the British, or even the present Congress Government—the real ruler has been dastur, custom. Everywhere the living are ruled by the dead. The seat of government is the graveyard where the dead silently rule us. If you don’t believe that, ask yourself the question: How many things do I do just because they have been done that way?
O Lord, you are stirring us to change. Your Spirit is the Spirit of Creation, and you are creating the eternally new. Help me to respond. Amen.
AFFIRMATION FOR THE DAY: I belong to the eternally new; therefore I challenge the is in the light of the ought-to-be.