The elderly may retire from jobs, but they mustn’t retire from life
Published 1:54 pm Monday, April 13, 2020
From the writings of the Rev. Billy Graham
Dear Rev. Graham: I was forced into retirement after 50 years of service to a company that started small and successfully grew. I was the last of the “old timers” to go. Management doesn’t seem to value anything of the past and the younger generation never believes they too will someday grow old and useless. — U.V.
Dear U.V.: There was once a bumper sticker that said: “Enjoy life — it has an expiration date.” It was on an old Ford Thunderbird convertible parked next to a shiny new black T-Bird. The age difference between the two cars? Almost 50 years. In the backseat of the third-generation 1961 model sat a teenager and a toddler, the driver’s grandchildren. The owner of the black car was his son — the three generations were on a family vacation.
People congregated in the parking lot to admire the ’61 Bullet Bird. The old car was getting all the attention, while the new model with all the high-tech gadgets quietly took a backseat.
When Coca-Cola changed its 100-year-old formula in 1985, there was a public backlash and demands for the original formula forced the company to return to the Coca-Cola Classic. Millions of fans made it known they didn’t want the “real thing” tampered with.
What does this have to do with getting old and being sidelined? Old is authentic and valuable. An elderly woman once said to her husband, “I wish I had enough money to get a facelift.” Her husband said, “Dear, the most inexpensive and lasting facelift is just to smile; it draws your features upward, and that draws people to you.”
The elderly may retire from jobs, but they mustn’t retire from life; rather, continue to be examples of the right attitude. Remember, the Bible says: “I have learned in whatever state I am, to be content” (Philippians 4:11).
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(This column is based on the words and writings of the late Rev. Billy Graham.)