A Biblical Look at Aging (Part 1) - Howard Hendricks

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A Biblical Look at Aging (Part 1) - Howard Hendricks
A Biblical Look at Aging (Part 2) - Howard Hendricks

FamilyLife Today® Radio Transcript

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What Retirement is NOT

Day 1 of 2

Guest: Dr. Howard Hendricks

From the Series: What Retirement is NOT

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Bob: There are challenges associated with moving into the retirement years. Many of us have never thought that far ahead. Here is Dr. Howard Hendricks.

Howard: Retirement has four major problems attached to it, the first of which is income – the financial component; the second of which is health – the physical component; the third of which is housing – your living arrangements; but the fourth and the most important is purpose, meaning, an interest in life. And the fascinating thing to me, and all of the research proves it, is we're making tremendous progress in the first three, but substantially none in the fourth, because it's the least recognized, and it's the most neglected.

Bob: This is FamilyLife Today for Tuesday, January 18th. Our host is the president of FamilyLife, Dennis Rainey, and I'm Bob Lepine. Have you started yet thinking about your purpose and your plan for your retirement years? Stay tuned.

And welcome to FamilyLife Today, thanks for joining us on the Tuesday edition. Whenever you hear that voice, whenever you hear Howard Hendricks' voice, you've just got to get a big grin on your face, don't you?

Dennis: I do, and the reason is he's one of those men who has marked my life over the past – well, I go back all the way to 1970 when I first started slipping into his class as a college student and then as a new staff member on Campus Crusade for Christ staff. I'd slip in the back of the class at Dallas Seminary …

Bob: You mean you weren't enrolled or anything? You just snuck in and listened to what he was …

Dennis: Shhhhhh – they'll probably want to charge me. They got my tuition later on.

Bob: You enrolled, and you took – you said you majored in Hendricks.

Dennis: I majored in Hendricks and got everything he taught in one year, and, folks, if you have ever had a great teacher, you know that great teachers can really mark your life, whether it's a coach, a professor, a Sunday school teacher – they really can impact you. And Dr. Howard Hendricks who was, for a number of years, the professor of Christian education at Dallas Theological Seminary in Dallas, Texas – "Prof" as he was known – really is – he was the finest teacher I've ever sat under, but he was more than just a professor. He was a man who understood how to motivate men and women.

Bob: Do you remember what it was the first time you heard him teach where you said, "I want to hear more?" He's a compelling speaker, he's very winsome, but there must have been something about what he was saying or the way he was expressing himself that caused you to go, "This is a man I want to hear more from. I want to learn and grow."

Dennis: He had the goods. In all my years at Dallas Seminary, I took five classes from him – not a boring class. Now, I want folks to think about that – that's a lot of classes. He was on the edge; he had the message; his wife authenticated his message; and he knew how to challenge and motivate young men who sat in those classes back then; now, young ladies as well, are being motivated by him.

But he became a good friend. In fact, we were just laughing the other day when I did a conference with him, and it's one of the great honors of my 34 years of ministry to have teamed up with him now on a couple of occasions for some conferences for Dallas Seminary. But we were just talking at one of those conferences – I set a record for the most number of laymen brought to his class when I was a student. I'd bring them in from the highways and the byways and the hedges.

Bob: So you used to sneak in and then, once you enrolled, you started sneaking other guys in?

Dennis: I brought other guys in. I want to show you how to drink water from a fire hydrant, and Dr. Hendricks is, indeed, a fire hydrant. And you and I both know, I ran across a series of messages that I'd never heard him give. It was actually a lectureship sponsored by Dallas Seminary a number of years ago on aging. And I first said, "You know what? I want our speaker team that speaks at our Weekend to Remember Marriage Conferences to hear this series," and then I thought, "You know what? I want you, as a listener, to hear this." Because I don't think most of us have a very good perspective about aging and retirement and some of the issues we're going to face as we grow older.

Bob: Now, listen, some of our listeners are in their 30s. Do you think this is going to apply to them?

Dennis: Oh, absolutely. You know, in fact, if you go to the book of Ecclesiastes, I think it's chapter 12, the author says, "Remember God in the days of your youth," and then he goes on to describe old age. It's kind of like, now wait a second, you're talking about old age, but why do you exhort us to remember God when we're young? Well, I think the answer is your understanding of walking with God today as you're young will determine who you become when you're an elderly man, an elderly woman. And I'm kind of on a little bit of a crusade and a soapbox about wiping out crotchety, gripey, complaining old men and bitter old ladies. You know, I think we've got enough of them. I think if anybody ought to have a smile on their face, it ought to be those of us who grow old with Jesus Christ.

Bob: Well, this week, we're going to hear one of the three messages that Dr. Hendricks shared with the FamilyLife Weekend to Remember conference speaker team on the subject of aging, and he was really talking about retirement, which he says is not a biblical concept in the way that most people think about retirement. Let's listen tog...