Old Age Happens
*The secret of longevity is deep breathing—as long as you can keep it up for eighty or ninety years.
*One cannot help being old, but one can resist being aged.
*As a person gets older he suspects that nature is plotting against him for the benefit of doctors and dentists.
*It takes about ten years to get used to how old you are.
*Have you noticed that you have to get old before anybody will say you look young?
*A man is getting old as soon as he decides that it is a lot easier to ride a lawnmower over the backyard than it is to plant a garden in it. (Sword Of The Lord Newspaper, April 7, 2023)
2 Corinthians 4:16-18 For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day. 17 For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory; 18 While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.
“From the day we are born (and before) we are aging.
Today we are older than we were yesterday.
Today we are younger than we are going to be tomorrow.
To live well is to age well. To age well is to live well.
What shall we do with our aging?” (Harvey H. Potthoff)
Ageing has been described and expounded by many respected and qualified people throughout the ages, men whose thoughts are considered profound and even endearing. Here’s what I think.
Ageing starts with sentience and grows from there in two stages, maturity and attitude. Of course I’m disregarding the physical aspects of our ageing bodies, although I believe that attitude can and does shape our physical ageing as well. As I understand maturity, it means a fullness of growth, which can apply to our spiritual, mental and our physical being. So let’s look at attitude. How does it affect ageing in Christian grace?
One’s attitude is always by choice, although it may be molded by circumstance. For attitude to really be a choice, circumstances need to be controlled early in life; and that’s where good parenting should be present. Nevertheless, where good parenting is absent, and one begins to mature, circumstances should be controlled so as not to allow bad-attitude thoughts to form or to be allowed into one’s mind. We all are, today, the sum total input of all our senses, sight, sound, smell, hearing and touching. There can be no other way to explain our present selves.
So ageing and attitude are tied in a kind of Gordian knot. The knot begins forming at an early age and its final form could be said to resemble confusion or control just as emotions can be confused or controlled.
Ageing begins early in life, something youth often fail to consider. A wise child is one who understands maturity and ages well because of that understanding. His/her attitude is by choice, not wildly affected by peer pressure. A wise adult may yet realize the same. It is to God’s glory that men choose their thoughts and act according to wise input in their lives.
Attitude is not mentioned in the Bible, but wisdom is mentioned about 234 times.
So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom. Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom: and with all thy getting get understanding. For wisdom is better than rubies; and all the things that may be desired are not to be compared to it.
A man shall be commended according to his wisdom: but he that is of a perverse heart shall be despised. Only by pride cometh contention: but with the well advised is wisdom. Labour not to be rich: cease from thine own wisdom. So shall the knowledge of wisdom be unto thy soul: when thou hast found it, then there shall be a reward, and thy expectation shall not be cut off.
Then I saw that wisdom excelleth folly, as far as light excelleth darkness. For wisdom is a defence, and money is a defence: but the excellency of knowledge is, that wisdom giveth life to them that have it.
For I will give you a mouth and wisdom, which all your adversaries shall not be able to gainsay nor resist.
O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out! That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, He taketh the wise in their own craftiness.
Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. Walk in wisdom toward them that are without, redeeming the time. If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.
If wisdom can be said to be one’s own hand, attitude could be a brushstroke, and one’s age in grace the whole picture.
