Revolutionize The Way You Think About Aging

What comes to mind for you when you consider aging? Is it fear? A sense of inevitable loss?

If this is your reaction, then the Biblical narrative will present you with a revolutionary approach. 

The human state has not changed much over time. Since we began walking on the earth, age has brought about outer decline. As years pass, humans begin to sag and slow; energy decreases and we find that we cannot do thing as quickly as we used to. As much as we try to purchase the creams that will keep us wrinkle-free, do the exercises that promise limber muscles, and keep up our brain power through crosswords and iPad games, we will get old.

When the Psalmist, an ancient poet who is well versed in the ways of Yahweh, the God of Israel, reflects on aging, he declares:

My ears are filled with the sounds of promise:

    “Good people will prosper like palm trees,

Grow tall like Lebanon cedars;

    transplanted to God’s courtyard,

They’ll grow tall in the presence of God,

    lithe and green, virile still in old age.” (Psalm 92:12-14)

With thoughts of Yahweh’s creative impulse and his care for his creation, this poet holds a vision of people progressing in age like strong trees. In this vision, aging people do not decline, but rather are able to grow tall, in strength and stature. They are described as thriving plants – that is, lithe, green, virile.

The Biblical narrative envisions aging as the possibility of maturing.

Author J.I. Packer, in his book, Finishing Our Course With Joy, contends that the biblical expectation of a kind of ripeness in old age is what permits healthful and graceful aging. He says that the biblical vision of ripeness, “is the substance of the last-lap image of our closing years, in which we finish our course.” Further, “The Bible’s view is that aging, under God and by grace, will bring wisdom, that is, an enlarged capacity for discerning, choosing and encouraging.” 

Have you considered this view of aging? Let it challenge you to anticipate your older years as an opportunity to grow in maturity.