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Robert, Gordon, Tom and Me
By: Tom Norvell
Vol. 13 No. 29 | July 19, 2010
I just watched an interview with Robert Redford concerning the oil spill in the gulf. For my last birthday my wife bought us tickets to hear Gordon Lightfoot in concert at the Ryman Auditorium. As he completed his last round of golf at St. Andrews in the 2010 Open Championship, Tom Watson stopped on the Swilcan Bridge and waved to the crowd to say farewell and thank you. And I am writing this article.
In one way or another, for one reason or another, all three of these men have played a significant role in my life. I have watched almost every movie Robert Redford has ever acted in, produced or directed...some of them multiple times. I have been listening to Gordon Lightfoot’s soothing music since my college days. I have appreciated watching Tom Watson conduct himself as a true gentleman on and off the golf course for decades.
So why would I include my name in the same paragraph with these men? What could I possibly have in common with these men?
Two things.
First, we are all getting older.
Robert Redford will turn seventy-four years of age in a few weeks. During the concert Gordon Lightfoot mentioned that he is seventy-two years old. Tom Watson is sixty years old. I turned fifty-seven in March. We are all getting older. We have more wrinkles, more gray hair, and we have all slowed down a bit compared to how we once lived. The aging process is real and unavoidable.
Second, we are still active.
Robert Redford, at almost seventy-four, though involved less in the movie industry, plays an active role in efforts to protect our environment. Gordon Lightfoot travels the world playing his songs and entertaining his fans even though his seventy-two-year-old voice is not nearly as strong or as smooth as it was four decades ago. 
Tom Watson, at sixty years of age, still competes on the golf course. He almost won the Open Championship a year ago, and he continues to be a force to deal with on the Champions tour. At fifty-seven, I am as committed as ever to learning new skills and technology to enable me to communicate God’s love for His people.
We are all getting older but we’re still active.
Redford, Lightfoot, Watson and I, for different reasons and from different perspectives, are determined to do what we can to make a difference in our world. By using the gifts we have been given and our respective realms of influence we are trying to make life better for those around us. We are rebelling against the voices that tell us: “You are too old.” “You are too tired.” “You are beyond your prime.” “You have nothing to offer.” “Give up.” “Quit.” “Get out of the way.” We are refusing to retire, to do nothing, or to sit back and let someone else do what needs to be done. We are proclaiming that this is no time to quit. This is no time to make excuses. This is no time to fade away. This is a time to be who we were created to be.
From God’s Word we see another who continued to live with purpose throughout his life:
By faith Abraham, even though he was past age -- and Sarah herself was barren -- was enabled to become a father because he considered him faithful who had made the promise. And so from this one man, and he as good as dead, came descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as countless as the sand on the seashore.
All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance. And they admitted that they were aliens and strangers on earth. People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own. If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return. Instead, they were longing for a better country—a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them. (Hebrews 11:11-16, NIV)
I don’t know where you are in life. I don’t know how old or young you are, or how old or young you may feel. I do know, however, that whoever you are and where ever you are in life, you have people who are watching you, listening to you, and in some ways, perhaps, depending on you to lead them, to be an example for them, and to speak for them.
Will you continue to compete? Will you continue to influence? Will you keep playing? Will you keep sharing? Will you keep moving?
When this life ends it is my prayer that someone somewhere will write about me: He was “still living by faith when he died.”
Tom
© Copyright 2010 Tom Norvell. All rights reserved.