By Ken Laue

My wife, Bonnie, as a gag, for my 71st birthday, January 12th of 2022, got me a T- shirt with a Casper The Friendly Ghost print on the front.

Say what? Turns out the T-shirt with Casper was her sense of humor saying she was tired of hearing me whining about being forgotten about. It musta been payback for all the times I said I felt like Casper the Friendly Ghost (a cartoon character from our childhood TV watching days.) Good hearted, helpful, but unseen . . .

As I pondered my seventy-first birthday, I was thinking, Gee whiz, how fast time flies! (You'll often hear us seniors say that). I remember as a new convert when I learned that The Door Church had an "Over 40's" Bible Study group, I couldn't even imagine what it must be like to be such an old person in my forties! I was then in my twenties.

When I was in the work force, my expertise was called upon quite often, but now? All of a sudden, no one's asking anymore. I’d been feeling a little sorry for myself. Overlooked. Un-needed. Unappreciated. Over the hill. Not even part of the "Who's Who" in the congregation.

You can be sure that whenever we're obsessing over the past instead of looking forward, God will step in. Recently, Pastor Bob Dohring reminded me that back in 1983, while involved in our prison ministry, I had led him in the sinner's prayer. He even went as far as calling me a hero.

Now, quite honestly, I had forgotten that prayer, but God used Bob to show me that even when we forget our labors, Jesus never does. “For God is not unjust to forget your work and labor of love that you have shown toward his name in that you have ministered to the saints, and do minister: (Hebrews 6:10).

We are never Caspers in the Kingdom.

The devil is always quick to remind us of all our mistakes and failures. But The Lord steps in and says, Hey, you didn't do so bad. And look at this: leading Pastor Dohring to the Lord way back then resulted in a lot of other souls coming into the Kingdom through his ministry.

Retiree Feeling Sorry for Self Syndrome (RFSFSS) is a variant of the Spiritual Coma Virus (my tongue-in-cheek invention). Part of the cure for RFSFSS is to stay involved in serving others. Too much easy chair time, I have learned, is a definite co-morbidity. Active involvement is basic spiritual therapeutics.

When you retire, I advise you to take your spiritual therapeutics early, before this disease produces bitterness from feeling overlooked; before past mistakes or wrongs against you take root or before you begin lamenting those pivotal moments where you think you took the wrong fork in the road. Don't allow a negative and critical spirit to start reproducing, or your spiritual immune system will get overwhelmed.

Just as Bonnie and I have learned to eat healthier and take vitamins and recommended herbals to enhance our immune systems, we have also learned that staying involved in the life of the church is like spiritual antibody therapy against this Coma variant. Staying active in children’s church, for example, has proven an effective immunization for us. The difference is that His immunization against this spiritual virus is not experimental - it's tried and true. Think of serving others as God's spiritual vaccine, as you witness to people while out and about, and care for fellow believers or strangers in His love.

On the flip side of the coin, at our age, is the mandate to make room for up-and-coming young people as they rise to take the baton. Oftentimes that means stepping aside – yet never throwing away your own involvement. It is your exampleship that defeats those feelings of being forgotten or obsolete.

The fact is, true value is bestowed only by God, and true recognition can only come from His hand. At my age, the desire for significance, for recognition, for a legacy, can sometimes come on strong. Granted, you always knew you weren't on this tour of duty we call life on Earth forever – now, in the autumn of your years, you're really starting to get it. But, hey: as I look out my window, I see snow on the Catalinas, and when I see my white hair in the mirror, I remember that “the silver-haired head is a crown of glory, if it is found in the way of righteousness” (Proverbs 16:31).

During some forty years while I worked in student transportation (school bussing), I wore many hats: Driver, Trainer, Supervisor, Manager in Safety of Operations. Whether on the road or around school sites, developing safe pickup and drop-off areas for parent cars and buses or pedestrian safety for kids walking to and from schools, my real expertise in safety was sought after.

During my last decade, the school district enjoyed a massive influx of government dollars to renovate and/or build schools. Architects and engineers were required to hear my critiques regarding crucial overlooked elements, and many a proposed plan was modified to include a bus bay, walking route, or parent drop-off/pickup area before being finalized.

After retiring in 2003, I worked for Vail Schools as my “retirement job.” When traffic congestion at the middle school had parent motorists slugging it out with school bus drivers for loading/unloading space in front of the school, my boss sought out my expertise. I directed his attention to the undeveloped school property at the rear that would make a perfect bus bay loop, thereby ceding the front of the school to the parent motorists. It worked like a charm.

But now that I’m completely retired – from the work force, not from serving God – it's a totally different ball game. I get to sleep in rather than getting up at 3:45 to start work at 5:30. I can luxuriate in long periods of devotions instead of squeezing a fifteen-minute prayer into morning preparations. And, surprise, surprise: after decades of being a Christian, I still battle with my sin nature, the flesh! But when I mess up and ask God for forgiveness, I am amazed when He lavishes a dose of His comfort and love on me. I know I deserve to get my butt kicked, but He encourages me instead to stay in the saddle.

It reminds me of the 1969 Western, The Over-the-Hill Gang, in which a retired Texas Ranger and his three retired buddies are called upon to bring law and order to a town run by corrupt men. In spite of their age and aches and pains, they overcome their doubts and bring the needed rescue. Sometimes us old codgers feel like we're so all washed up that you might as well put us out to pasture. But in the Kingdom of God, senior citizens are still important players – not just on the golf course or at the fishing hole (ouch!) but in the life of the church and the reproduction of the Gospel.

I've begun to get a deeper understanding of how great God's love is for people - even people who have screwed up big-time. Psalm 107 talks about people who have totally messed up their lives – even to rebelling against God – and yet God reaches down and lifts them up in His mercy and compassion. How vast is His love and kindness! I'm ever amazed! I'm one of those guys in that psalm!

God has shown me how He has sought me out and desired a relationship with me – not because I have some kind of expertise or skill set, but because I am his child and He loves me! He gives me a taste of this in how I, as a father and grandfather, love my daughters and my grandchildren just for how precious they are. I love them for who they are, not what "success" they can achieve or what skills they can offer the Kingdom, society, or the human race. Yeah, I do like it when they achieve something, but still, I love them when they screw up.

God sought me out when I was a rebellious college student in the ’70s. As a wanna-be hippie, I acquiesced to a wedding ceremony to placate Bonnie and her folks (after all it’s just a piece of paper) and said my vows in a tux and hiking boots with a headband around my unruly hair. I smoked pot and rejected The Establishment and Organized Religion. I had a strong sense there was a Supreme Being but didn't want phony churches telling me what to believe. (Those pastors all drove Cadillacs or Mercedes anyway, so that was a case in point.)

I stepped out of a theater in Globe, Arizona after seeing Star Wars, thrilled that Luke Skywalker received help and protection from the unseen spiritual entity known as The Force. But then I realized it was all just a fantasy and got bummed out thinking there was no such benevolent force operating in the real world; that I was, in fact, on my own.

For a couple of years at Top of the World (just outside of Globe) Bonnie taught school and I spent a lot of time hiking or bouncing around the hills in an old Chevy four-by-four. I would get on top of a peak or in some secluded canyon and call out to “God, whoever or whatever You are" to tell me if He was real, and if so, what did He want me to do? My search ended in Tucson in 1979 when people from Door Church witnessed to us and we got saved. My search for God was fulfilled, as was Bonnie's.

I often marvel at how God sought me out and hunted me down in the midst of my young rebellious life.

If you're reading this, and you're not yet a believer in Christ Jesus, take my advice: He really is what you're looking for, deep down in your heart. Give in to Him, and experience His amazing care and love for you! After all, He's been seeking you for a long time. You're one of His lost sheep . . . as was I. God is pulling for you; He is courting you. But the Bible says, "It is appointed to man once to die and then the judgment" (Hebrews (9:27).

God is very, very patient with us. But if you pass the deadline – that is, the time you pass from Earth into Eternity – and you haven't accepted Jesus into your life, then, it's too late. You won't make Heaven. But you'll make the other place -wait- don't say it - you mean Hell?

Why procrastinate? Ask Jesus to come into your heart today and put your life in His hands. Besides, why miss out on His help and support during your life in the here-and-now? “Casting all your cares upon Him for He cares for you" (1 Peter 1:7).