Age doesn’t matter when living out your faith

A man who was honored in his local church as “Agitator of the Year”? I wanted to meet this guy. So I did.

Bob Runkle of Post Falls certainly doesn’t look like an agitator. But his church family at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in Coeur d’Alene thankfully honored him a few years ago as a faithful agitator.

While the award was given with tongue-in-cheek joy, Bob’s ongoing challenge to his fellow church members and their pastoral staff is quite serious.

He is one of those persons who combines a strong spiritual foundation with a passion to put his faith to work serving his community. Plus he does his best to draw the folks at St. Luke’s into that invigorating air of faith-motivated service to the more vulnerable citizens of Kootenai County.

And the other factor that drew my attention? He is 72 years old, a geezer who is willing to show geezers-in-training ways to grow in faithful service.

Did I really say “geezer”? The word is based on a French word for “disguise.” So Bob fits my personal definition of “geezer” as one who lives in the disguise of an older person but has the heart and hope of a younger person.

Bob and his wife, Mary Beth, arrived in Kootenai County in 2003, so he has made a strong impact in a relatively short time.

Currently, he is the part-time administrator of Trinity Group Homes, a residential program for people with a mental illness. He also serves as chairperson of the Social Justice and Outreach Ministries Commission of the Spokane Diocese of the Episcopal Church.

In between those time-consuming tasks, he is a volunteer for St. Vincent DePaul in Coeur d’Alene and recently wrote a successful grant for the Post Falls Food Bank. I don’t even know what he does within the bounds of his St. Luke’s Church family. I suspect it involves more than just sitting in a pew on Sunday.

But a lot of people are extra busy. Even geezers can be extra busy.

So what catches my attention and imagination is why Bob is busy. He is motivated to serve others because of his faith.

He is also deeply motivated to grow in his faith. Because of that, he has applied to become a deacon in the Episcopal Church. It’s a rigorous study program. But Bob sees it as a way to grow in his personal faith while he also learns new ways to reach out to persons in his parish and in the community.

Why am I even telling you about Bob Runkle? Because Bob is an agitator of high purpose. Both elders and young adults can learn from him. He embodies a life well invested (not “well spent”) as well as a life still worth investing in other people.

In 2007, I wrote another column found in this newspaper, the Elder Maze. One of the occasional features of that column was “A Light in the Maze,” where I introduced readers to different elders whose lives were inspiring to others.

While each of those elders had their own significant faith journeys, I didn’t focus on that part of their stories.

In a faith-and-values column, I can more appropriately emphasize that the “whys” of our lives are also central to what we do or who we are. So I wanted you to know something about the “whys” of Bob Runkle’s active life of giving himself to others through service.

I hope you have someone like Bob Runkle to look to when you wonder about the quality of your daily life, regardless of your age or “productivity.”

What Bob has, countless other people have as well: a passion to live out in daily life what they’re learning about the God who loves not only them but everyone around them.

Learn from them. And be thankful.