Episode 79- Aging with Wisdom and Grace

SHOW NOTES

What does God have for each of us as we grow older? How do we embrace our aging in a culture that worships youth?

Steve chats with Sherill Hostetter today, and the conversation is a beautiful and honest look at what each of us will likely experience in our lives… and how we can all decide to grow older with grace and wisdom and approach aging as a spiritual pilgrimage.  

Thanks for joining us in today’s conversation!

Today’s Guest Sherill Hostettler

Sherill Hostettler is an accredited Spiritual Director and Certified Leadership Coach. Sherill and her husband Darrel served with Eastern Mennonite Missions for over 35 years and live in Lancaster, PA. She has an M.A. in Congregational Leadership with concentrations in pastoral care/counseling and spiritual formation (EMS); and a Certificate in Gestalt Pastoral Care (Tilda Norberg).

Mentioned in Podcast

• Aging with Wisdom and Grace by Wilke and Noreen Au
• A New Way of Struggling by Susan W.N. Ruach

"To struggle used to be

To grab with both hands

and shake

and twist

and turn

and push

and shove and not give in

But wrest an answer from it all

As Jacob did a blessing.

But there is another way

To struggle with an issue, a question –

Simply to jump

off

into the abyss

and find ourselves

floating

falling

tumbling

being led

slowly and gently

but surely

to the answers God has for us –

to watch the answers unfold

before our eyes and still

to be a part of the unfolding

But, oh! The trust

Necessary for this new way!

Not to be always reaching out

For the old hand-holds.

-From “A New Way of Struggling” by Susan W.N. Ruach"

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• Prayer for the Grace to Age Well by Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

"When the signs of age begin to make my body
(and still more when they touch my mind);
when the ill that is to diminish me or carry me off
strikes from without or is born within me;
when the painful moment comes
in which I suddenly awaken
to the fact that I am ill of growing old;
and above all at the last moment
when I feel I am losing hold of myself
and am absolutely passive within the hands
of the greatest unknown forces that have formed me;
in all those dark moments, O God,
grant that I may understand that it is you
(provided only may faith is strong enough)
who are painfully parting the fibres of my being
in order to penetrate to the very marrow
of my substance and bear me away within myself.

– Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, S..J. (1881-1955)"

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• Steve’s reading of A Liturgy for the Death of a Dream from Every Moment Holy.
• Sherill’s life verse: Philippians 3:10

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