Growing Old - Blessing or Curse?
Some reflections on growing older in a 3-part series
PART 1
Gabby is a PR consultant in her late fifties. She works hard, but also looks after herself. She eats well and spends a lot of time in the gym, keeping her figure trim and sleek.
During the corona shutdown her gym was shut and she wasn’t able to visit her hairdresser for her usual treatment for her greying roots, or her beauty therapist for that little botox injection to fill up the wrinkles around her eyes.
And Gabby got quite anxious about this. The reason? Gabby, deep down in her heart, doesn’t want to admit that her body is ageing, and that ageing is evidence her body is dying.
How do you think about ageing? Are you terrified? Are you (because you’re in your twenties or thirties) nonplussed, wondering what all the fuss is about?
More important than what we think, what does the Bible tell us about ageing? Let’s consider some of these truths.
1) Ageing was not God’s intention … but part of His mercy
Adam and Eve were meant to live forever, never tasting decay or death. But when sin entered the created order, God’s stated judgement was death—but in his mercy he delayed the judgement. Death would come to everyone eventually, but a perishing decomposition process would occur in the interim.
From a lifespan of many hundreds of years immediately following the expulsion from the Garden, the human race has settled into an average lifespan of seventy, or perhaps eighty, years (Psalm 90:10). So, our bodily life here on earth is an experience of decay, but God in his mercy uses it to teach us about Himself and the nature of salvation.
2) Ageing is inversely proportional to spiritual health
In 2 Corinthians 4:16-18 Paul says,
Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.
Outwardly we are wasting away. From the moment we were born, this has been happening. On the day I was born, my body was at its most perfect, most alive, full of life. As every day goes by, from the moment of my birth, my body matures and dies a little … and every day I am one day closer to death. That is what ageing is.
We feel alive—but decay has set in. A ‘use-by’ stamp has been imprinted on every human. We see this as we look in the mirror each day and contemplate the ravages of time: failing eyesight, poor hearing, aches and pains, droopy underarms, wrinkled blotchy faces, greying hair. We are becoming weaker and weaker.
But something else is happening at the same time—and these two things are in inverse proportion to each other! Outwardly we are declining; inwardly, (i.e., our spiritual nature) is strengthening. That inner nature that is turned towards God is at zero when we first put our trust in Jesus, but then grows and gets stronger as time goes by. Hope gets brighter. Assurance gets clearer. Faith gets stronger. And the ageing physical body takes a back seat to this daily renewal of the inner nature.
There is a real conundrum or tension here. As we physically decline, we see ageing as a series of losses … of energy, strength, concentration, mental agility or reaction time; our physical resources shrink. But spiritually our horizons are expanding and growing larger, because the person who loves and trusts Jesus is moving towards the goal of life, i.e., being at home with their Heavenly Father.
Because of the contraction in our work and family responsibilities, we now have the opportunity to spend significantly more time in the Scriptures, to make a dent in that pile of Christian books on our bedside tables, to delight in spending wonderful time in prayer with our Heavenly Father…. and our spiritual horizons expand! Our inner spiritual natures are being renewed as God works in us to transform us into the image of his Son!
Our eyes move from the decay, the trials, the difficulties of growing older, to what is coming—the unseen joy of the glorious new creation with unfettered access to the Father.
3) No bucket list needed
What’s on your bucket list? The things you would like to do before you die, before you kick the bucket? The existence of that term is testament to the truth "you only live once". And so cashed-up retirees all around the affluent West are spending their time and money on experiences that they think they need to have before they die.
Buddhists don’t have a bucket list, because if you're reincarnated, you don’t need to do everything before you die, because there are more opportunities in the next life!
But, contrary to Buddhism, you only live once! There is only one life! Hebrews 9:27 warns us that we only have one crack at life before we die and then face judgement. But the best life awaits us in the new creation. The ‘bucket-lister’ is mistaken by thinking this life is the ultimate life. No, eternal life in the new creation is the unrivalled epitome of the best life.
The great truth to grasp is that when I get to the new creation, there will be no such thing as regrets. It’s not as if I will say, as I am ushered into eternal life, “Well, I wished I’d got to see Machu Picchu, or climbed in the Nepalese Himalayas, or cruised the Greek Islands, before I died!”
Who knows? You may very well be able to see and do much more than these in the new creation, but in the end it won’t matter. In eternal life, there will be no pining for what you’ve missed because you will be utterly transfixed by the glory of the New Jerusalem and Him who sits on the throne.
Lesley Ramsay has been in local church ministry with her husband, Jim, for 47 years. After university she trained as a teacher and then raised four children. Over the past 30 years she has worked as a Bible teacher and evangelist across Australia and overseas. She has written and edited several books and training packages that are sold and used internationally. She now works at Moore College in Sydney, in pastoral care to the students. To relax, she enjoys a good coffee and a good book and hanging out with her grandchildren.