{"id":3845,"date":"2013-04-09T17:27:02","date_gmt":"2013-04-10T00:27:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/?p=3845"},"modified":"2013-08-26T17:15:32","modified_gmt":"2013-08-27T00:15:32","slug":"hatching-the-aging-heart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/hatching-the-aging-heart\/","title":{"rendered":"Hatching the Aging Heart"},"content":{"rendered":"<style><!--p.padding {padding-left:.5cm;}--><\/style>\n<p><em>Nurturing Elders &amp; Others<\/em><br \/>\n<strong>Hatching the Aging Heart: Spiritual Break-Throughs by Geezers<\/strong><br \/>\n<em>By the Rev. Paul Graves<\/em> | <em>Illustration by Jesse N. Love<\/em><\/p>\n<p>A few months before my father\u2019s unexpected death, his primary doctor challenged him. Because of increasing symptoms of Parkinson\u2019s disease, Dad\u2019s walking was becoming more difficult for him. At this particular appointment, the doctor simply said, \u201cBob, I think it\u2019s time you think about getting a four-wheel walker.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Dad\u2019s reluctance was immediate: \u201cBut that\u2019s a step backward.\u201d \u201cNo Bob,\u201d his doctor said, \u201cIt\u2019s actually a step forward. If you don\u2019t use a walker, your walking will become more and more difficult.\u201d We went out that very day and bought a walker!<\/p>\n<p>For the last few columns, I\u2019ve touched on various reasons for older adults to keep spiritually active. My bias is if we don\u2019t push ourselves to nourish a sense of inner adventure, curiosity, creativity, and wonder, we will likely wither on the spiritual vine. That benefits no one \u2013 not us, nor those close to us. It also betrays the trust God has in us.<\/p>\n<p><!--more What can we discover within ourselves?--><br \/>\nAt the February meeting of the Conference Council on Ministries, we decided to offer a series of workshops to clusters of churches around the Conference. These three-hour workshops would focus on various topics we think would be pertinent to older adults and the ministries they are involved in.<\/p>\n<p>The first focus we decided on is generically called \u201cspiritual formation.\u201d It can take a variety of forms, of course. I will test a shortened version of one possible workshop at the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/index.php?option=com_redevent&#038;view=details&#038;id=645%3Arocks-and-ripples&#038;xref=921&#038;Itemid=122\">Inland District\u2019s Rocks and Ripples on April 13<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>I call it \u201cHatching the Aging Heart: Spiritual Break-Throughs for Geezers\u201d. The image of geezers-in-waiting (in your \u201850\u2019s), geezers-in-training (in your \u201860\u2019s and \u201870\u2019s), and bona-fide geezers (whatever age you choose) breaking out of a spiritual eggshell is a fun image for me to consider!<\/p>\n<p>It takes a special kind of courage to have \u201cdone your part\u201d in the church or community and still want to grow in your faith. It would be \u2013 and too often is \u2013 too easy to dismiss any idea of growing when you have no idea when your energy will slow down and your interests outside of your own life are diminishing.<\/p>\n<p>But that is precisely the time to realize you may be going into a shell. You may be closing the world off, too tired or uninterested enough to care. You may even be unintentionally closing your heart off from the wisdom-gifts God still has for you to experience.<\/p>\n<p>I first discovered a delightful image, \u201chatching the heart\u201d, when reading Marcus Borg\u2019s special book The Heart of Christianity. He borrowed the image from Frederick Buchner\u2019s novel \u201cGoodrich\u201d and our editor, Jesse Love redrew it for my column here in Channels.<\/p>\n<p>This metaphor &#8211; hatching out of a spiritual eggshell &#8211; is certainly a useful way to remember that we\u2019re never too old to break through with new wisdom and insight about what life is about. Borg says this on the hatching idea:<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe shell needs to be broken open if the life within it is to enter into full life\u2026if the heart is not hatched, we die. The hatching of the heart &#8212; the opening of the self to God, the sacred \u2013 is a comprehensive image for the individual dimension of the Christian life.\u201d (p. 154, The Heart of Christianity)<\/p>\n<p>His metaphor isn\u2019t aimed at older adults, but I think we are right in the \u201cline of fire\u201d of its truths. Just because we have gray hair and wrinkles doesn\u2019t mean we\u2019ve stopped growing spiritually. Oops! I should say those features don\u2019t mean we have to stop growing spiritually.<\/p>\n<p>In fact, I can make the case that this time in our lives is a wonderful time to reach within us and see what surprising passions and sense of purpose still lay within our souls. This intentional conversation about breaking through the shell we encase ourselves could be exciting.<\/p>\n<p>We might discover that we\u2019ve shelled ourselves with so many older ways of thinking about God, Jesus, others, and ourselves that breaking through our hardened routines is difficult to do. I\u2019ll bet a baby chick has difficulty breaking through its shell. But what a new life it experiences once outside.<\/p>\n<p>The same goes for us!<\/p>\n<p><center><em>The Rev. Paul Graves serves as the chair for the Conference Council on Older Adult Ministries.<\/em><\/center><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<table>\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td valign=\"top\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/channels\" target=\"_blank\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Channels 62\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/COVER_Channels62_120px.gif?w=696\" \/><\/a><\/td>\n<td valign=\"top\">\n<p class=\"padding\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/channels\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>Channels 62, April 2012 is NOW AVAILABLE!<\/strong><\/a><br \/>\n<strong>INSIDE:<\/strong> Sand Creek Project \u2022 Mission u &amp; 5 Columns of Mission \u2022 &#8220;Deep Roots, Abundant Harvests&#8221; Training Event \u2022&nbsp;Jar$ for Jamaa Letu \u2022 Palestine: Sharing &amp; Storytelling \u2022 Lake Washington UMC &amp; Camp Unity Eastside \u2022 Relevance X calls young people for ministry now \u2022 Musings: Why Pub Theology? \u2022 Campus Connection: Imagine What&#8217;s NEXT \u2022 What is Resource Ministry? \u2022 Bishop: Cue, Routine, Reward \u2022 April\/May 2013 Calendar \u2022&nbsp;Summer Camps 2013 \u2022 E-mail <a href=\"mailto:channels@pnwumc.org?Subject=Re: Sign me up for Channels!\">channels@pnwumc.org<\/a> to subscribe.<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Nurturing Elders &amp; Others Hatching the Aging Heart: Spiritual Break-Throughs by Geezers By the Rev. Paul Graves | Illustration by Jesse N. Love A few months before my father\u2019s unexpected death, his primary doctor challenged him. Because of increasing symptoms of Parkinson\u2019s disease, Dad\u2019s walking was becoming more difficult for him. At this particular appointment, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":51,"featured_media":3846,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[111,6,142],"tags":[237],"class_list":{"0":"post-3845","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-channels","8":"category-conversation","9":"category-older-adult-ministries","10":"tag-transformation"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/COLUMNS_NurturingElders.jpg?fit=600%2C308&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2l75j-101","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3845","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/51"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3845"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3845\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4899,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3845\/revisions\/4899"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3846"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3845"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3845"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3845"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}