Matney: Rage against the dying of the light
“Do not go gentle into that good night,” is a famous line from the poem of the same name by Welsh poet, Dylan Thomas. The poem goes on to say, “rage, rage, against the dying of the light.” My browser informs me that the poem is a powerful and passionate plea to resist death, and it encourages us to live boldly and fiercely, even in the face of our mortality.
I like that thought. Our world desperately needs people who can rage against the dark with patience, love and wisdom. That enlists all of us, not just those who are in the last decade of their mortal life.
Also, I want to apply the terms, “that good night and the dying of the light” to not just physical death but to the death and dying of the light of truth, knowledge, wisdom and common sense. And so, I am urging everyone, senior adults included, to not be intimidated into silence as our culture, our friends, and our loved ones slide into the deadly night of foolishness and ignorance.
Education doesn’t have to be expensive, but ignorance is, and it is deadly. Ignorance often brings about premature death. It enslaves people in financial debt, broken relationships, addictions and other physical and mental health problems, and it ultimately separates us from God and the temporal and eternal happiness we could have had if we had paid attention and obeyed the truth.
So, let us not be silent in the face of crippling and deadly ignorance. Put another way, let us all learn to rage against foolish philosophies and ignorance with passion, patience, love and wisdom.
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A man I know well is turning 70 years old this year. Yes, that man is yours truly. As I grow older, it is dawning on me that many people in the younger generations see me as irrelevant, if they see me at all. They see me as a fossil, something from the ancient past.
To them, I’m just an imprint of what was once a living, breathing, human being, but now I’m just a hollowed-out, stiff old shell of a man, a fossil. So, maybe I should just shut up and fade away. But I don’t feel that way. I feel very much alive, and I feel I have something to offer younger generations. I hope you feel that way too.
But we can even feel like God has forgotten us, overlooked us, and has no need of us. And so, we just wait in silence. But I like the way the writer of Psalm 71:9 desperately cried out to God, “And now, in my old age, don’t set me aside … !”
Adults of every age, let’s make that our prayer. Let’s refuse to sit silently on the sidelines. Here’s the continuation of the prayer in Psalm 71:18: “Even when I am old and gray, do not forsake me, my God, till I declare your power to the next generation.”
The next generation. In which one of the following generations were you born? Who is the next generation following you? Do you know people in some of the younger generations?
The Builder Generation, aka, the Silent Generation (born between 1928-1945), Don’t be silent! Baby Boomers (Born 1946-1964), Generation X (Born 1965-1979), Generation Y (Millennials), (Born 1980-1994), Generation Z (Born 1995-2009), Generation Alpha (Born 2010-2024), we need you!
Builders and Boomers, Gen Xers, and Zoomers, we all have a responsibility to share our faith, hope, wisdom and love with younger generations. God isn’t finished with us. Don’t be silent! Rage against the dying of the light of truth. But how can we know the truth?
Jesus said in John 8:32, “You shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free.” God said, in Hosea 4:6, “My people are destroyed for a lack of knowledge. So, in this age of fake news and relativism, knowing the truth starts with humility and asking questions.”
It starts by asking some hard, maybe unpleasant questions. Who is God? Who is Jesus? What claim do they have on my life? Jesus said in John 14:6, “I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” Was he a liar? Was he a lunatic? Or is he Lord of all? What is the message of the Bible? What is truth? What is wisdom?
The wise man, Solomon, said in Proverbs 9:10-11, “The reverential fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding. For through wisdom, your days will be many, and years will be added to your life.”
There is a reward for seeking the knowledge of the Holy One. Read the Bible for a worldview and perspective that no other source of information will give you. Yes, much of it is tough, gritty and raw, but we need that sandpaper to slice through the deadly pablum of today’s philosophies, entertainment and intellectual fare.
Additionally, none of the world’s wisdom can secure our souls into eternity. But if you embrace any of the Bible, its sword of truth will begin to cut the chains of ignorance that bind us humans and it will save your soul eternally. And when you begin to share it with your children, grandchildren and others, it will save them also.
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Believers — Builders, Boomers, and Generation XYZers — all who know God’s love and light, let us not go silently into the night. Rage against the ignorance all around us. Your voice of faith, hope, love, strength, wisdom and common sense are desperately needed by your peers and the younger generations. Sincerely pray, “God, don’t set me aside. Help me declare your love and power to the next, and the next, and the next generation.”
Dan Matney is the pastor at New Life Assembly of God in Avon. Email him at pastordanmatney@hotmail.com.
