The year was 1806. John Newton, the author of Amazing Grace, was 81 (almost 82). He vowed that as long as the old African blasphemer had breath in his lungs he’d ascend to the pulpit and proclaim the Jesus who saved him.
But there was one problem. Newton could barely string together coherent sentences at this point. Always an extemporaneous preacher, Newton would begin one point and then launch into an entirely unrelated point. His eyes were so dimmed that he couldn’t even read the scant notes he brought into the pulpit.
He was no longer helping his congregation.
When he was in his mid-30’s Newton had been struck by this quote from Cotton Mather: “My usefulness was the last idol I was willing to give up; But now I thank the Lord, I can part with that also, and am content to be anything or nothing, so that His wise and holy will may be done!”
In his 70’s Newton wrote to a young John Ryland, Jr. about this “trial” of old age. He believed that stepping away from “usefulness” required even more grace than being active in ministry. Newton couldn’t bring himself to step down from the pulpit, though. A group of men in his church had to lovingly force him out of the pulpit. Newton would die a little over a year later.
Cognitive decline isn’t something to mock, it’s something to mourn. And it’s something for us to reflect upon for ourselves. I’ve watched as that first realization of cognitive decline falls upon a person. It is scary to them, and to those who love them. And they want to hang onto usefulness to the very end—you likely will too.
Yet there is also a path to loving a person in this position. There is a time when we must pull them away from their “pulpit”. For the sake of others, and for their own sake. That idol of usefulness must also be slain.
“You and I were never meant to repent for not being everywhere for everybody and all at once. You and I are meant to repent because we’ve tried to be.” -Zack Eswine
I suppose we could use this moment of the cognitive decline of an American president for political expediency. We can mock and meme, or we could press into the humanity of the situation. First and foremost, Joe Biden is a person made in the image of God. He’s likely battling fear, pride, and a swirl of other emotions. My prayer is that he will find his rest in Christ. And that those on the right and left will restrain from dehumanizing him–either by propping him up because of their own political calculations or by mocking him in the hopes it will help their opposing party.
