Aging Well

One of my friends celebrated her 90^th birthday this year. She would not use the word ‘celebrate’ because she says this is the first time that she has felt old. She says, “I don’t know how to do ninety.” She struggles to explain her emotions.

I’ve thought about that statement and tried to understand what she is feeling. She could mean that at her age, it is difficult to make plans for she does not know how much time she has left or what the future holds. This is true for everyone, but when those birthdays pile up it comes into sharper focus. This thought helps me with today’s devotional reading:

Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”— yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.” As it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin. (James 4:13–17)

From my hubby and life, I’ve learned the importance of thinking ahead and making plans. As the old saying goes, It is better to aim for the stars and hit the woodpile, then to aim for the woodpile and hit your foot. Or aim for nothing and you will surely hit it! However, God says I’m to consider the unpredictability of life as the above passage says, and the will of God. I can make my plans but God often uses life to interrupt or change them.

This is something of what my friend is feeling as she ages. She hesitates to make plans because she is not certain she can carry them out. For me, that would feel like being tossed in the air and not sure if I will come down, an ‘in limbo’ sensation and not at all pleasant because of its uncertainty.

This week she also explained that she is here yet she feels like she is slowly disappearing. For that, another passage came instantly to mind. As I read it to her, she flipped the pages in her Bible and read it again, all the time saying, “Hallelujah, Hallelujah!”

So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal. (2 Corinthians 4:16–18)

She said that all her life God has been preparing her for glory. This must be her focus, not just now as her time approaches, but it has been true for a long time. Nothing has changed at becoming ninety, only that she is closer to the reality of experiencing that promised ‘eternal weight of glory’ that is unseen yet nevertheless real and eternal.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Lord Jesus, I thank You for this friend whose words and life constantly point to You and Your promises. She struggles with the visible and transient stuff of life, including her aging outer self that is fading away, but she lights up when conversation is about those unseen realities, about You. She is a blessing to all who know her even though she seldom realizes it because her focus is not usually on herself but on You. She sets for me an example of what it means to grow old and remain faithful in my love for You.

Today’s thankful list . . .

- this and other friends who show me how to live for Christ.

- dying is not the end of life but a transition to endless life.

- the Holy Spirit who helps me keep my focus on what I cannot see.

- enough tomatoes from our single plant to make a big bowl of tomato soup.

- the smell of gingersnaps as they come out of the oven.

- the ability to sleep whenever I need a nap.