Warning!!! The following may appear to some to be political, it really isn’t.
I watched the first night of the Democratic National Convention and was left in tears. I waded through all of the hoopla and the speeches of the party loyalists in order to hear Joe Biden speak. It was going to be a historic night, in that he was going to pass the baton to his Vice President, Kamala Harris.
So, I watched the entire thing wanting to see how this was going to transpire. For those who maybe don’t keep up with the news, Joe Biden has been pressed by leaders and supporters of his party to give up the nomination for President in this election cycle. They have hounded him because of a poor performance in a debate. He is 81 years old, and he shows signs of his advanced age. The fear has been he would not be able to carry his party to victory in the upcoming election.
What seemed to many on the outside was, President Biden was being asked for the good of his party and nation to step aside and allow a new generation the chance to lead. President Biden did as he was asked, and stepped aside and threw his support behind Vice President Harris to be the nominee.
With all of that as background, I want to go to Monday night’s speech by President Biden. As anyone would expect from such a situation, Joe Biden could have easily made a case for how he felt abandoned and wronged by those he had committed to serve. That’s not what happened. He was gracious, he supported his successor and his party. The one line that really stuck out for me was when he said at 29 he was too young to be a senator from his state, and now at 81 he’s too old to be president.
Do we as people, have an internal notion of who is useful based on their age/gender/race or other qualifying designation? Is that how we as a people of God are called to view one another? Or does God look beyond all of our imposed parameters to find the woman or man who God believes can fill the job?
God looked beyond the youthfulness of David and saw a person who could lead a people, and made him king. God looked beyond the age of Abraham and Sarah, made them the progenitors of a nation. God looked beyond the age of Solomon when he inherited the throne from his father David, gave him wisdom beyond his years. God looked beyond the age of Moses as he led the Hebrew children to the promised land. In fact, in Deuteronomy 34:7 we’re told, “And Moses was a hundred and twenty years old when he died: his eye was not dim, nor his natural force abated.”
To my way of thinking, we are too quick to judge people on what we see externally. God looks to the heart and soul of a person, and judges them for who they can be. There are young people who I believe have a maturity and wisdom beyond their years, and they should be promoted to leadership roles. They deserve a chance to serve. There are people of an older generation who have not outlived their usefulness, they are bright, hope-filled, full of vigor and with a keen mind, they too deserve the opportunity to serve. When we even begin to think we are sharp enough to decide who’s in and who’s out in terms of leadership and service, maybe we should take a step back and try to look through God’s eyes at them. The real truth is, we all have potential to be of use to God and God’s kingdom. Will we offer ourselves to be servants and servant leaders? Are we willing to give all we have to serve others? These are hallmarks of true leaders seen through the eyes of God.
No matter where we are on the political spectrum, we owe a huge debt of gratitude to Joe Biden for his over 50 years of public service to our nation. He gave us all he had in him, and for that we should laud and acclaim him, and give thanks to God.
Your companion on the Way,
Pastor Tom