“Is not wisdom found among the aged? Does not long life bring understanding?” (Job 12:12, NIV)
As one of the 20 qualifying teaching professionals, Stuart Smith teed it up last week at the PGA Championship. Since this opportunity is earned by 20 professionals every year, that’s not really the news. What is significant is that Smith is 59 years old—deep into competitive golf’s senior years.
I know Smith’s age because I looked it up on the internet, but I had a good idea how old he was already. A few weeks ago I wrote about my small college experience playing against some of the big dogs, and Stuart Smith crossed my mind, as he has done off and on through the years. You see, in 1982, when my NAIA college, the University of Redlands, traveled west to take on UCLA in a head-to-head at their home course, Bel Air Country Club, I was matched against Smith.
While I bunted my two short balls down the par-5 first hole in order to wedge it up to the green, Smith hit the green in two and made the putt for eagle. That’s how long it took for me to realize just what league we were playing in.
Apparently Smith hasn’t lost it much.
Spiritually speaking, the advantage of age is a function of one’s ability to see.
In the spectrum of life, every age has its advantages. What the old lose physically is held in balance against what they gain in understanding. Old golfers often stay competitive by way of course management and decision making, both assets that are strengthened by experience. In the same way, old humans recognize the way of the world and their place in it, which gives them a measure of wisdom that often outdistances the young.
But there are no absolutes in the broader spiritual context. A person equipped by the Lord will be wisest of all. Like Solomon or Mary or Timothy, younger people may be given insight far beyond their years. And Jesus told us to look to children for examples of faith.
Is there, then, an advantage to age—to being “older and wiser”? Job appealed to this truism. But the much younger Elihu came along and countered, “But it is the spirit in a person, the breath of the Almighty, that gives them understanding. It is not only the old who are wise, not only the aged who understand what is right” (Job 32:8-9).
Spiritually speaking, the advantage of age is a function of one’s ability to see. Some are spiritually blind when they are young, then come to see with godly eyes later in life. Others see well when they are young, but spiritual cataracts blur their vision as they get older; their age comes with crusty, unforgiving edges.
When the apostle Paul wrote of finishing well in this life, he certainly wasn’t saying he wanted others to finally recognize all the excellence in him. Instead, he was saying that he wanted to run with increasing spiritual strength right through the finish line. That, friends, is the true wisdom of age.
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Jeff Hopper
May 25, 2021
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