Old dog...new tricks!

We are familiar with the phrase: "You can't teach an old dog new tricks."  It's a nice way of saying that someone who is older is impossible.  Followed by, he/she is "behind the times."  So, what if these "new tricks" aren't really new at all.  Solomon wrote "there is nothing new under the sun."  We know that we have a repetitious history back through the centuries.  Because of that each "new" generation thinks they have discovered a "new" truth, song, place to go, and many other things the "older ones" can't possibly know.  Several years ago I was driving my teen daughter somewhere.  On the radio came a song that I started singing along with.  My daughter was in shock.  "Where did you learn that song?"  Thinking that the song was new she was not happy to find out it was really a popular song from the 60's and not new at all.  After all, our generation invented rock and roll!  Perhaps some of us don't want to be taught new tricks.  Perhaps all of the old tricks have taken their toll on us and we just are too tired to go another round of change.  True also is the thought of relinquishing the "next generation" to rule the world.  That is still frightening!  However, we need to acknowledge that we are not the powerful group we once represented.  So, being an old dog, is difficult.  Set in our ways we think we are winding down life and look forward to a better day out there.  Just why are there new tricks and why is it important for me to learn them?  My eldest son is very computer savvy.  He lives in Minnesota and I am here in Washington.  When a computer problem set in on my laptop he connected from Minnesota over the network, went into my computer while we were talking on the phone and fixed my computer.  Five minutes tops!  I'm glad he has the knowledge to do this.  But, I don't want to learn that new trick.  So, sometimes it's not that we old dogs can't learn new tricks.  Rather, we don't see the need, desire to go through whatever is before us to learn the trick, and want to eliminate complexities from our lives.  God said that we need to become as little children in order to enter heaven.  Talk about simple lives.  Marveling at a caterpillar on a leaf, fireflies at night, and a multitude of their "complex" world is much better than trying to learn "new tricks."  So, this old dog will be content in the day he has.  Today I will not attempt to do what I cannot and should not.  Today I will leave the leading and learning of the complex to the younger generation.  Just remember that it was us "old dogs" that invented rock and roll!