Going to the Senior Center

     Most people don't like going to the Senior Center.  Mostly because they fear growing old and seeing themselves there.  I've been to many Senior Centers and there are some general qualities that exist in each one.  First, there are many people who have been there for a long time and don't have anyone visiting them.  Second, there is "that" smell in the building.  You can smell it even before you open the door.  Third, there are caring and uncaring staff their either because they love what they do or they need the money.  Fourth, the food is all over-cooked.  Fifth, many are mentally ill or have terminal diseases.  That's enough to make most of us second guess our desire to visit the Senior Center or to bring our children there.  Most people in the early Christian years thought that way about lepers.  Yet, Jesus not only visited with them; he also healed them.  Jesus actually touched the unclean.  What does that say about you and I? 
     My first experience in a Senior Center was while I was a pastor in Minnesota.  I had "rotation" to go preach on a Sunday afternoon.  So I went and preached...and failed miserably to connect with much less deliver words of encouragement.  What had I done wrong?  Paul exhorts us to be all things to all people.  Sounds simple until we actually try to do so.  I went to some pastor friends and asked them for advice.  One friend said, "Talk with them like you would your grandparents."  So, I went back my next rotation and described how my grandmother went about making donuts on her wood burning stove.  There was a silence in the room I couldn't believe coupled with people nodding their heads and fixed eyes on me.  People everywhere, but especially the elderly, want to know three things.  They want to know that they are important.  They want to know that they are going to Heaven.  Finally, they want to know that their memories are important. 
     We aren't all that different.  From the earliest of Biblical times three elements have been present as desires in the hearts of mankind.  The first is that we want to be loved.  Not "liked", "loved."  The second is that we want to be accepted as we are.  Not as we were and certainly not as we should be.  The third is that we want to be approved in the most generous of senses.  Love, Acceptance and Approval.  It's what we need to and desire to give to our children, our spouses, our parents and families, and others in our lives.  Our biggest challenge and quandary is how do we give love, acceptance and approval to ourselves without sounding all puffed up?!  People, who aren't narcissistic, are able to give fairly well to others.  So why the difficulty of giving to ourselves?  I have several suggestions.  None of them do we like.  First we're told to be humble (often taken to mean thinking lowly of ourselves).  Not that humility is bad; for it isn't.  Second, we're told that we don't deserve to be loved, accepted and approved.  Thirdly, we are reminded every time we turn around what dirty rotten awful sinners we are.  How could we possibly love, accept and approve of ourselves...rhetorical question.
     The concept of caring for others is couched in the understanding that we can only give to others what we ourselves have received for ourselves.  So, if you loath yourself the best you can do is to loath others as they remind you, just by their presence, of just how  loathable you and I are.  Should we like ourselves and not like ourselves; then we put that onto others as well.  This allows us to pick and choose what we like and don't like about ourselves and others.  Finally, if we choose to accept the FACT that God loves us (totally, completely) and then believe that we are lovable, we choose to love ourselves.  Loving ourselves enables us to give that which we have, love, to others.  The more we believe and bring to reality the love of God in our lives, the more we are able to pass it on.  We can never give anyone that which we do not have.  Next time you go to the Senior Center or even just drive by one, think of what you have to give.  Perhaps go in and give that which you have.  Wouldn't that be radical.  Next, go home and give to your spouse, children, friends and co-workers and neighbors that which you have in abundance.  Here is the caveat: try to out give God with your love, acceptance and approval you have received from Him.