The word is out that you’ve just turned 60, Rev. Witmer.
It’s true. And I always used to think that 60 was quite old. So I find it rather sobering to now finally be here.
But I’ve been noticing for a while now that the shadows are lengthening. So I don’t save so much stuff. I get restless with a lot of small talk. And my eyes tear up more often than before.
What have the last three decades of life taught you?
Author Jack Higgins said that someone once asked him what he would like to have known as a boy. He said: “That when you get to the top, there’s nothing there.” I often think about that.
King Solomon had women and wine and wealth and fame, almost without limit. He called it all vanity. In Ecclesiastes 12:13, he wrote: “The conclusion, when all has been heard, is: fear God and keep His commandments, because this applies to every person.”
The older I get, the more I’m convinced that Solomon had it exactly right.
Oscar Wilde said: “In this world there are two tragedies. One is not getting what one wants, and the other is getting it.”
So many folks end up strangled by the very toys that they’ve struggled to buy.
Others who manage to accumulate wealth are then worried about how to keep it. Mart DeHaan II wrote: “The desire to have things is soon replaced by the fear of losing them.”
I once watched a wealthy man gnash his teeth — literally — out of anxiety that the markets would crash or that the government would rob him of everything that he’d worked to gain.
Do you have a favorite Bible verse for life?
One text that is often on my mind is Proverbs 3:5-6: “Trust in the LORD with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will make your paths straight.”
But how has that proven true in your life? You’re in a wheelchair, paralyzed, unable to walk, and dependent on your wife to get dressed every morning. It may seem to some people that in exchange for trusting God, He has made your ways crooked, not straight!
Sometimes God draws straight paths with crooked lines. I was once driving south on Route 11 through Bloomsburg, Pa. At some point in that town, Route 11 south turns northeast for several blocks. I said to my wife, “This can’t be right.” But it was. We had to go northeast to get southwest. One glance at the map would have made that clear. But often, in life, only God sees the whole map.
Grant Colfax Tullar wrote a poem titled “The Weaver.”
My life is but a weaving
Between my Lord and me,
I cannot choose the colors
He worketh steadily.
Oft times He weaveth sorrow
And I in foolish pride
Forget He sees the upper
And I, the underside.
Not till the loom is silent
And the shuttles cease to fly
Shall God unroll the canvas
And explain the reason why.
The dark threads are as needful
In the Weaver’s skillful hand
As the threads of gold and silver
In the pattern He has planned.
In other words, God wants us to trust Him even when we can’t figure it all out. Especially when we can’t figure it all out.
What makes life meaningful for you?
My sense of purpose comes from enjoying a rational faith in, and relationship with, someone beyond myself — namely, Jesus Christ — and from promoting His truth, His glory, and His greater purposes.
I know people who have sacrificed most of their lives so that they can someday sit around and waste what’s left of their lives. That would leave me feeling very empty, I’m sure.
There’s an imaginary story that Chuck Swindoll relates in his book, “Rise and Shine,” about a man who was one day sitting on a beach, relaxing in the sun. Suddenly a genie appeared and offered to grant him any one wish he wanted. This man loved wealth, so after thinking a bit he devised what he felt was a very clever scheme. His one wish, he said, would be to view the stock market report one year hence. In a moment, it was given to him just as he’d asked — a newspaper dated exactly one year into the future. He thanked the genie, who then disappeared. With a greedy grin, the man sat down and opened it up, confident that now, knowing the future, he would have the inside track and be able to quickly get ahead financially. But just as he began to read the stock report, his eye fell on something on the page to the right. There, in the third column, halfway down, he saw his own obituary.
“For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?” — Jesus Christ, Matthew 16:26
The Rev. Daryl E. Witmer is founder and director of the AIIA Institute, a national apologetics ministry, and pastor emeritus at the Monson Community Church. He may be reached on the Web at AIIAInstitute.org or by email at AIIAInstitute@aol.com. Voices is a commentary by Maine people who explore issues affecting spirituality and religious life.