Emile Ratelband recently caused quite a stir with his unusual lawsuit. Fox News reporter Lucia l. Surarez Sang posted this take on his story on November 8, 2018:
“A Dutch businessman is making waves after he launched a legal battle to officially roll back his age 20 years – claiming he is a “young god” and dating apps discriminate against him due to his age.
Emile Ratelband, who is — for now — 69 years old, told a Dutch court this week he didn’t feel “comfortable” with his date of birth and wished to have it changed from March 11, 1949, to March 11, 1969… “You can change your name. You can change your gender. Why not your age?” he told De Telegraaf outside court. “Nowhere are you so discriminated against as with your age.”
He told the Dutch newspaper that his view is supported by medical and physiological reports, saying: “My biological age in the medical world is determined to be at 40 to 45 years.”
Ratelband’s attorney told the Guardian that it was high time for the courts to allow for the reversal of age. The judge in a court in Arnhem is expected to give a ruling within four weeks, Sky News reported.”
Time will soon prove Ratelband wrong. This approach to life is neither new nor rare, but it is a dishonest and ineffective way to deal with reality.
One of the great strengths of the Bible is that it tells it like it is. When telling the stories of great men and women of faith it exposes their weaknesses, there inner struggles, their bad choices and the grace that made everything work together for good.
The fact is, we will all get old, we will all make mistakes, we all have shortcomings, and none of us are self-sufficient or perfect. That is all by design. God created man to need Him most of all and one another to a lesser extent. No one is an island. No one will have it all. Even the accomplished, gifted, rich, famous and powerful among us will only find true joy when they accept that life is a challenge and none of us will survive it and enjoy it without God’s help. This truth is never more clear than when sitting in a memorial service of a loved one.
But that truth is also a great comfort when coupled with God’s promises to forgive those who don’t deserve forgiveness (see I John 1:9), empower the weak (see Romans 5:6) and give an eternal home to those who choose to live life as He directs (see John 14). Faith in God is sturdy enough for anything and is forever. Pretending is a short-lived fantasy.