Peoria Times
24 RELIGION
September 16, 2021
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The knowledge of strength and wisdom CHURCH-COMMUNITY CONNECTION
Pastor Ed Delph Peoria Times Columnist
The “both/and” is an optional way of living. Let me give you an example of how this works. Do you know there are two major seasons in our lives? The Bible calls these seasons strength and wisdom. So first, there is a time for strength. Then as you gain experience and lose some strength, the season changes to wisdom. Interested? Proverbs 20:29 reveals to us this
truth: “The glory of young men is their strength, and the honor of old men is their gray hair.” Thus, gray hair is an Old Testament symbol of wisdom. So, there is a strength time and a wisdom time in our lives. I loved the strength time in my life. I could stay out all night drag racing up and down Central Avenue in Phoenix. I could get in at 4:30 a.m. and get up at 6:30 a.m. and work all day. I could play two rounds of golf in a row in the summer. I could eat eggs, bacon and the good stuff stuffed with cholesterol. I remember water skiing for hours at a time. When I was a young business owner, I stayed awake for three days in a row to complete a
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rush job that had to finish on time. If I tried that now, I would be toast. Today, I eat things like bran flakes, read the newspaper, drink coffee, and have air conditioning in my car. In my youth, air conditioning was just something that robbed horsepower. Today I wouldn’t leave home without air conditioning. The hair that was on my head is growing out of my nose and ears. I’m not losing hair; I’m gaining face. It takes me three Snickers bars to get around the golf course while my young friends watch in wonder. I even listen to classical music. I’m even starting to look like my father. Oh, the cost of wisdom. You might say I’ve transitioned, morphed, or maybe I’m just a little older and hopefully wiser. But I’m older than what I want to admit and in the wisdom time of life. Sometimes confusion about which time of life we are in causes identity problems and midlife crises. But both seasons are good and God. That’s the way God
designed life. Here’s a story, written long ago, of how young and old came together in a way that created a win-win for both. An old man met a young man who asked: “Do you remember me?” “No, I don’t,” the old man said. Then the young man tells the older man he was his student in school. The teacher asks: “What is your occupation now? “I became a teacher.” “So, you became a teacher like me?” The student says, “Well, yes. I became a teacher because you inspired me to be like you.” “That’s interesting. How, how did I influence you to choose to be a teacher?” the teacher asked. The young man answered, “One day, a friend of mine, also a student, came to class with a new watch. I wanted it. I stole it right out of his pocket. When my friend noticed his watch was missing, he complained to our teacher, who was you. Pointing to my friend, SEE WISDOM PAGE 26
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