Growing Older, Not Grumpier

This article is Day 1 in David Claassen’s book, Growing Old Gracefully

The sign along Highway 3 in Iowa identifying the nearby town of Readlyn states, READLYN 857 friendly PEOPLE & one old GRUMP. The legend has been part of the town’s history for years concerning a hobo who got off the train and decided he would make Readlyn his home. The hobo’s demeanor prompted people to call him “the Old Grump.”

Now that I’m well into my senior years, I’m thinking more about that Old Grump of Readlyn, Iowa, and how I don’t want to be like him. If we counted the people on my street, those in my church family, and my extended family, I don’t want the tally coming up one person short with the addendum, “and one Old Grump,” referring to me.

Grumpy people can be any age, but it seems that the label is most often applied to the older population. As I continue my senior journey, I want the story of The Old Grump of Readlyn, Iowa, to inspire me not to be like him.

I’ve learned much from the examples of others on how to grow older gracefully, and how not to. I spent almost forty years pastoring a church that contained many seniors. We always had fifteen or more on what we called our “shut-in” list, those folks who no longer drove, were homebound, or living in an assisted living facility or nursing home. I visited these seniors hundreds of times. I sought to comfort and help them, acting as a spiritual adviser, but I often found they taught me and modeled for me, by both good example and bad example, how to grow older gracefully.

Jackie was one of our nursing home shut-ins who knew how to grow older gracefully. She had a wonderful, vivacious personality, always with a ready smile. Jackie got around the nursing home in a motorized wheelchair. While visiting Jackie, she shared how she had attached one end of a rope to a friend’s wheelchair that was hand powered, the other end being attached to the back of her motorized wheelchair. She described, with a big grin, pulling her friend down the nursing home hallway. With the grin still in full force, she added that the staff had reprimanded her for doing so, telling her she wasn’t to do so again. As I grow older, I want to emulate Jackie and other senior citizens like her.

Growing older is not an option. We all grow older until we die, but how we grow older is an option. We make choices every day as to whether we will become an old grump or grow into a more gracious person. We might not always realize we’re making such choices, but we are. Our inattentiveness to the process can result in our growing older in an ungracious way. We should be intentional about the aging process.

Growing older is a privilege not all are granted. Will we use the privilege wisely? Old age is a gift. Will we unpack the gift of these days with appreciation and a determination, making the best of them?

Part of my own way of preparing for growing older gracefully is collecting and crafting thoughts on the subject, then putting them on these pages. Over the years, I’ve found whatever subject I preach, teach, or write on for the benefit of others, benefits me even more. My prayer is that you gain something from our thirty-one-day journey together, but I’m already certain I will gain the most from our shared journey.

A second motivation for putting some thoughts down in a small book like this is the possibility that, if I drift toward being an old grump, my wife or our children will be quick to toss a copy of this book in my lap, telling me to read what I wrote. This motivates me to practice what I preach, or in this case, what I write.

Growing Older Gracefully is the title of this small book for good reasons. “Growing” is the first word. We can continue “growing” as we get older. More on this later. “Older” is the second word in the title. I chose the word “older” instead of “old” because we are not “old,” which is a state of being. Growing “older” suggests a process, a journey. More on this later as well.

“Gracefully” is the last word in the title. Grace and its derivatives are such wonderful words. Yes, you guessed it, more on this wonderful word “grace” later as we journey these thirty-one days together. Gracefully is a sibling word to the word graceful, which, if you reverse its two parts, means being full of grace. Being full of grace means being pleasant, sweet (not a sourpuss), and attractive (not necessarily in looks, but in the sense that people are attracted to us). But, most importantly, it means extending undeserved favor to those around us.

The apostle Paul faced many grueling situations as he fulfilled the call of Christ for him as an apostle. His ministry took a toll on him. Considering all he went through, we can assume he aged at a rate more rapid than normal. In addressing the Christians in the city of Corinth, he penned these words, recorded for our benefit many years later. “Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day” (2 Corinthians 4:16). My prayer is that over the next thirty-one days, we’ll find ourselves “being renewed day by day.”

Thanks for picking up this little book that, by God’s grace, can be a travel guide for us as we reflect together on our journey of growing older. I believe this can be a fulfilling journey for us—despite the many challenges that come with the aging process—if we decide to make it so.

Books By David Claassen: