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Good morning, Saints,
Greetings, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ from Music City, U.S.A. I have spent this past week in Nashville, TN, at our annual Association of Lutheran Secondary Schools national conference – a conference for executives and administrators from over 130 LCMS Lutheran high schools in the United States and abroad. In honor of country music, I am mostly a fan of the older stuff, but I still enjoy some up-and-coming artists. Now, don’t judge me; country music, bluegrass, and country and western music are truly parts of Americana, to which today’s message is partially devoted, along with the gospel, of course.
About a year ago, country music lost an artist who I do enjoy, Toby Keith, dubbed Big Dog Daddy, to late diagnosed stomach cancer. Like many young artists, Toby initially struggled for many years in Nashville and didn’t succeed until after he was thirty. His first big hit was Should’ve Been A Cowboy. He, of course, created many, many more hits after that and was known for keeping his concert tickets affordable and celebrating and uplifting American Veterans - spending much of his tour time overseas giving concerts and entertaining service men and women. He died a year ago, February 4, at the age of sixty-two.
When not entertaining, Toby enjoyed golf. He especially enjoyed playing with an old friend, Clint Eastwood. Who wouldn’t, right? During one round, Toby asked Clint (then 88 y.o.) how he does it, having so much energy at his age. Clint answered, “I just get up every morning and go out. And I don't let the old man in." Toby loved the answer, and after pondering about it, wrote the song “Don’t Let The Old Man In” around 2018 and shared it with Clint. At the time, Eastwood was directing and starring in the movie The Mule, which was based on a true story. Eastwood loved the song and asked Toby if he could use it in the movie.
The song didn’t get a lot of attention until Toby played it on stage five months before he died at the People’s Choice Country Awards at Nashville’s Grand Ole Opry House. In the song, the Old Man is a metaphor for death. The gritty country icon gave an emotionally raw performance that evening that had viewers in the audience, across America on TV, and even Toby, teary-eyed. Physically seeing the Big Dog Daddy perform using lyrics he’d written in that song: And I knew all of my life / That someday it would end / Get up and go outside / Don't let the old man in," Those words coming from the once burly 6’3” 235lb belter of Red Solo Cup, to now the shell of a man he once was is a remarkable moment. Not in a take the air out of the room way, but more like adding a dose of humanity and faith for us all to consider. Those who know and follow Toby know his faith. In many ways, it was a testament to his faith and begged viewers to reflect on their own.
Whether you’re a Toby Keith fan or not, or even a country music fan, we all understand what letting the “Old Man in” looks like when we look in the mirror. As humans, we wrestle with mortality. We are only As Good As I Once Was. In today’s devotional scripture, the Apostle Paul also asks us to reflect on the old man. Paul says in Ephesians that as Christians, we know the truth, the truth in knowing Jesus Christ. In knowing Christ, we must daily put off the old man, the old Adam. The old man is human sin, which corrupts us according to humanly deceitful lusts.
Paul continues, saying that our hope is in renewal. The very spirit of our minds is renewed by Jesus Christ. The renewal in Jesus Christ is the new man, a new self created in God's very image through His Son, Jesus! Toby knew the new man and knew Jesus. In our daily lives, Saints family, we fight to not let the old man in. We rejoice in the new man; we are a new creation by God’s grace in Jesus Christ. In Jesus, the old is gone, and the new is Christ. Amen.
May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with us all evermore. Amen.
Have a peaceful weekend; see you back in Irvine on Monday.
In Christ’s love and mine,
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