by Alan Langstaff

This month I enter my 9th decade when I shortly turn 91 years old. I am getting older, and I know it. So, from that position of 91 years old, I look back on my life and also share my own thoughts about it again. I am not an expert, so I just share some of my own observations. I will be dealing with the positive and not the negative on this occasion.

MY 91 YEARS

  • I was born in the middle of the Great Depression in 1935 in Sydney, Australia.
  • I was a youngster during the days of World War II. I still remember when the war ended.
  • I grew up in the post war years of the 1950s, when life seemed more stable back then.
  • I lived through the 1960s when life’s culture experienced many changes.
  • I charged through the exciting time of the Charismatic Renewal in the 1970s.
  • My family and I moved to America in 1980 to begin again, and I felt welcomed in this new country (though I still love Australia).
  • I eventually became the Pastor of a growing church in Eden Prairie, Minnesota – Antioch Christian Fellowship.
  • I had the responsibility and the joy of leading ministerial associations during the next 20 years.
  • I ministered in some 40 countries around the world. All the continents except Antarctica.
  • I started a Bible School – Antioch Christian Training School and wrote my first book, Hedges.
  • I was the interim Pastor of an Assemblies of God church in Chaska – Church on the Hill.
  • I eventually retired from pastoral ministry, though I continue to minister through Kairos Ministries.
  • There were other ministries, including the ministry of Christian television.

In addition to all that was my wife, Dorothy, and two children, Beth and Joy. Indeed, all of that happened came out of Dorothy and me together. She was only fourteen when we started to go together. When our children reached fourteen, I wondered, “Whatever were we doing?” But it worked out, and we shared just short of 65 years of married life together.

Through the years, Dorothy and I experienced great and wonderful experiences, including leading the Temple Trust in Australia for 10 years. Yes, we had some hard and difficult times as well, but through it all, God has been good to us.

The story of those years is combined in two books, Called Together, which covers our first 45 years in Australia, and The Best is Yet to Be (available on Amazon), which covers the next 45 years in America.

Just this week, a friend called me and asked me to pray for him. He had just finished reading the second book, and God had used it to touch his life. Read it, it could change your life too.

SOME THOUGHTS TO SHARE

Some thoughts on growing old, not in order of importance – just thoughts.

1) FINISHING WELL

I want to finish well, and all of us would love to hear those words, “well done, good and faithful servant.” I thank God for the faithful Christian leaders who have inspired me along the way.

“Remember those who led you, who spoke the word of God to you; and considering the result of their conduct, imitate their faith.” – Hebrews 13:7 (NASB)

So, I too would like to finish well.

2) REMAIN FRUITFUL

I have a book in which I have the names of various people and ministries that I pray for regularly. One of the pages I pray for there is “hoping they see fruit of their labors.” Knowing that life can be hard at times, never stop using the opportunity to minister. You can remain fruitful to the end. I saw that happen in Dorothy’s life and death.

3) YOUR MINISTRY BEGINS IN THE FAMILY

Situations will vary, but they can include spouse, children, and grandchildren, and in my case, great-grandchildren. Remember, you can leave a legacy after you have gone, in their lives, and who knows what ministry may come from the family tree. The family is the great legacy you leave behind, and I pray for my family every day.

4) FRIENDS ARE FRIENDS FOREVER

I realize that not everyone is as fortunate as I am. I have two things I have to be thankful for:

a) I have a team of approximately 10 people who I call “Alan’s Angels” that help me in so many ways on a regular basis including my family.

b) I thank God for friends who come to visit me. I am housebound and cannot drive a car anymore. In addition, there is contact by phone and by the internet that also includes my family.

Friends are friends forever.

5) GRATITUDE

If there is one thing that grips me, it is to be grateful for the life that God gave me and Dorothy with me. As I look back on my life, I realize God was more active in it all than I sometimes realized at the time. You might even say that I, as a Methodist Arminian, have become more Calvinistic in my old age. God was at work even when I didn’t realize it.

“To God be the glory. Great things He has done!”

CLOSING THOUGHTS

I want to finish with two stories.

1) Poem: “With Thee”

It was written back in 1960, and he sent me a copy at the time of Dorothy’s homecoming.

WITH THEE

Shall we, my darling, together grow old
  To face a grave so dismal and cold,
With weary limbs and heavy heart
As death’s cruel hand shall bid us part?

Shall we have lived through all this strife
To merely say, “It was a good life,”
Or is there really something more
  Awaiting past Death’s dismal door?

We shall conquer death, my love,
  Through Him whose Son came from above,
And bled and died at Calvary
  That you and I from death be free.

And when I face that heavenly throne
  Shall I face my Lord alone?
No, my love, this shall not be,
  I’ll greet the Master, dear… with thee.

-Phil Roland

2) The Growing of Old Age

Whilst cleaning out the house just recently, I came across this story by Pastor Eclov of “Preaching Today.”

“Beside these verses in the margin of my old Bible I penciled the name F. Folkes. F for Frederica. I met her in 1987 while waiting for the elevator at a rather grim geriatric center. She was a small, nut-brown, elegant lady in a wheelchair, patting the hand of a young, incapacitated man. I started talking to her, missed the elevator, and found a friend.

When I asked if she was a Christian she said, “Why, of course!”

We went to her room and sang together. We quoted Scripture, finishing each other’s sentences. For example, I started Psalm 91 and when I got to, “I will say of the LORD, he is my …” she rushed ahead of me, “my refuge and strength. My God in whom I trust!”

I asked what I could pray for. “I want to go home,” she said. I hesitated, “Uh … home here?”

“Oh, home in heaven,” she said, as if giving her address. Still fresh and green.

The next time I stopped she was gone; home to the courts of our God.

Be ye glad!”

CLOSING VERSE

“Though our bodies are dying, our spirits are[a] being renewed every day…we don’t look at the troubles we can see now; rather, we fix our gaze on things that cannot be seen. For the things we see now will soon be gone, but the things we cannot see will last forever.”
2 Corinthians 4:16,18 (NLT)

RESOURCE MATERIAL

MinistryWatch, “Finishing Well”
https://ministrywatch.com/finishing-well/

PreachingToday, “The Crowning Grace of Old Age”
https://www.preachingtoday.com/your-soul/preacher-devotions/crowning-grace-of-old-age.html