Bringing examples of what older adults are actually doing to make a positive difference for other older adults in church does not seem to generate responses on this blog.  Because it is through our conversations together (our responses with each other) that we all gain in our sense of well-being, I am going to try a different approach;  a more personal story-telling approach to aging and the church. 

Bruce

My first story relates to a recent incident I saw in church by an older adult couple.

NOTICING GOD’S PRESENCE IN THE EVERYDAY

My wife and I were sitting in the sanctuary one evening last month with about 125 other members of our congregation.  We were listening to an engaging speaker talk about her remarkable and hope-filled ongoing struggle with stage 4 cancer.*   Because my wife and I have both grappled with cancer ourselves recently, we waited with great anticipation for what the speaker had to share with us.  Our expectations for a helpful/hopeful message were exceeded, but my story is about something that happened in the audience as the speaker started telling us of her journey.

As the speaker began her talk, I noticed a couple we have known as friends and colleagues for 40 years stand up and move over two seats and sit down right next to an older member of our church who was sitting alone.   The wife put her arm around this person for a bit, and the husband acknowledged their move with a smile, a nod and a small wave of his hand.   Perhaps I just imagined it, but I thought I could see a sense of relief or calm spread across the face of the person who had been sitting alone.

Since all of this took about five seconds, I was glad that I was sitting close enough behind them to see this spontaneous act of kindness and its positive outcome. 

Later in the program, during the comments and questions between the audience and the speaker, I mentioned publicly what I had noticed, and associated that deed with the sort of kindness and friendship that the speaker identified as being so helpful to her during her years of struggle with cancer.

At the conclusion of the program and as we were leaving the sanctuary, a couple of people thanked me for bringing up what I had noticed.  They had themselves not noticed that “move”, yet, they said, my pointing out this act of kindness gave them a special positive feeling for the sort of thoughtful and caring congregation we have in our church.  It made them feel better about themselves to be a part of “this place”.

This cluster of messages seen and heard made me wonder how much we don’t notice God’s presence in our everyday lives, that if noticed and shared would add to our sense of grace, hope and well-being?

Bruce

         *Deanna Thompson, Hoping for More:  Having Cancer, Talking Faith and 
         Accepting Grace.    2012,  Eugene, Oregon; Cascade Books.