What would you like to do for your 95th birthday? My quick response is, Breathe! Only the Lord knows the number of our days but since longevity isn’t a part of my family DNA, I’m really not expecting to see 95. However, if I do, I’ll guarantee you that I would not have any desire to jump out of a plane!
This is what former President George H.W. Bush had planned to do.
As a U.S. Navy Lieutenant, Bush flew “58 missions, completed 128 carrier landings, and recorded 1228 hours of flight time.”1 All of this involved being IN the plane. When Bush turned 73 in 1997, he decided that he had seen enough of the inside of a plane. This was as good of a time as any to jump OUT of that plane. What would have prompted this?
During WWII, his plane was shot down after attacking a Japanese installation on Chichijima island, about 150 miles from Iwo Jima. Bush and two of his crew members had to eject from their plane. Bush was the only one to survive. This left a lasting impression on him as he wondered why he had been spared and what did God intend for him to do. At the age of 73, Bush decided to jump from the plane on his own terms.
This began a trend. Two years later at the age of 75, Bush decided to jump again. He decided this would be the way to celebrate every five year intervals so at the age of 80, 85, and 90 he made the jump. The second jump nearly cost him his life as he started spinning out of control and was unable to pull the ripcord. From then on, he jumped tandem. His 80th birthday jump came just 10 months after a complete hip replacement.
I love the president’s attitude when asked why he would do something like this. “Just because you’re an old guy, you don’t have to sit around drooling in the corner,” Bush Sr. said (via CBS News). “Get out and do something. Get out and enjoy life.” Following his own advice, had he lived just one more year, Retired Sgt. 1st Class Mike Elliott, who was a skydiving buddy of the late president, told ABC11 that Bush Sr. planned on jumping for his 95th birthday as well.”2
You can hear a sermon in that, can’t you? Or, at least, a devotional.
Dr. George Sweeting, former president of Moody Bible Institute, said, “You can age with joy and finish with grace.” How’s that possible? Consider 2 Corinthians 4:15-16. “For all things are for your sakes, that the abundant grace might through the thanksgiving of many redound to the glory of God. (16) For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day.”
The more the outward man perishes, the more the inward man gets renewed day by day! Certainly, we can see that the aging process causes the outward man to perish, to become feeble and decrepit. God knows that our frame is but dust. (Psalm 103:14) To keep us sweet and joyful on the journey, He renews that which doesn’t perish – the inward man that has experienced the saving grace of Jesus.
Rather than “sitting around drooling in a corner,” get out and do something. I’m not suggesting that you jump out of a plane, though. I’m suggesting that you find a way to use whatever years you have left for the glory of God. Proverbs 16:31 says, “The hoary (gray) head is a crown of glory, if it be found in the way of righteousness.” In the Hebrew, way means on the road, the journey, going the direction, on the course of righteousness. In intimates that it is DOING something, not sitting and wasting away or frittering away the final years playing canasta or bingo while swapping tales of the good ol’ days.
Jump into something for the Lord!
1https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_H._W._Bush
2https://www.grunge.com/1216915/the-quirkiest-hobbies-and-habits-of-american-presidents/
