1 Samuel 12:2
“And now, behold, the king walketh before you: and I am old and grayheaded; and, behold, my sons are with you: and I have walked before you from my childhood unto this day.”
One of the privileges of my lifetime has been to be around some great people in their senior years. I don’t know why the LORD has allowed this other than the opportunity to glean wisdom from them. There is no doubt in my mind that one of the greatest reasons God has blessed my ministry is because of the wisdom these men entrusted me with.
I had the privilege of being around Frank Melbourne, a missionary to Spain for over fifty years. As a young teenage boy I spent time with him on a weekly basis learning things about the ministry. I had the privilege of being around Dr. Lee Roberson in his senior years. The valuable truths I learned from him about the Sunday school were priceless. I had the privilege of being around Dr. Jack Hyles in the latter years of his life. The principles I learned from him about the ministry and life in general were invaluable. Even now I’ve had the privilege to be around Dr. Bob Gray Sr. and glean wisdom about soul winning and the ministry. I determined a long time ago that I would not waste the opportunities the LORD gives me to glean from older saints.
One of the greatest mistakes made in the verse above is that the people had the wisdom of Samuel at their fingertips, and yet they wasted all the years of wisdom. Instead, they were too interested in being trendy. They wanted to be like every other nation and have a king. While they were so busy trying to be like every other nation, they wasted the years of a man whom God used in a great way. They wasted the opportunity to ask him questions while he was still alive. If they had only put as much effort in gleaning from Samuel as they did in trying to be like the other nations, maybe they would have saved themselves from much heartache.
Just like I’ve had the opportunity to be around great people in their senior years, all around you are people from whom you could glean wisdom if you would spend time with them. These people will not clamor for your attention, but they would love to be able to spend time with you.
One of the saddest things I’ve ever seen in my lifetime was how Dr. Lee Roberson was treated in his senior years. I had a group of young men with me in the Chattanooga area, and we went over so I could introduce them to him. While the men were there, they wanted to see the buildings God used Dr. Roberson to build. While they were looking around the buildings, someone asked them why they were in the area. They told this person that they were there to visit Dr. Lee Roberson. This person attended the church Dr. Roberson used to pastor and was a student in the college he started, but they didn’t know who he was. All they knew him as was the “old man in the front office.” What an inditement to that place! To have wisdom just a few steps away, and not even spend time gleaning that wisdom was a travesty.
Christian, don’t ever be guilty of wasting the gray hairs around you. You would be wise to find whom God has currently placed in your life, and do what you can to spend time with them. God’s placed them in your life so you can glean wisdom from them to pass on to future generations. Don’t be so busy with your life that you miss these great opportunities. Don’t be so wrapped up in younger personalities that you miss the greatness of the gray hairs in your church. No, they may not know about the newest technologies, but they do know about life, and God’s placed them in your life to help you. Decide right now that you are going to get to know the gray hairs in your life and use the time you have with them to glean every bit of wisdom they can give you.