In 2010, the first of the “baby boom” generation (those born between 1946 and 1961) will become senior citizens. The Western world braces itself for the coming old-age crisis. According to Joyce T. Berry, U. S. Commissioner on Aging, “Within the next 40 years, the number of older persons in the U. S. will more than double. By the year 2030, the population of the entire country will look like Florida’s, with 28% of Americans over the age of 60 . . . and the number of people 85 and over will almost triple to eight million.”
In fact, by the year 2015, it is estimated that the world population of the elderly will approach one billion — the size of China today! How will society cope? Health costs continue to spiral out of control. Western governments are awash in deficits. The pyramid will continue to invert as more and more retirees expect to be supported by less and less workers. No wonder men’s hearts fail them for fear as they peer into the dark and foreboding unknown.
Meanwhile, research continues to look for the scientific fountain of youth. It is an ageless dream. Bernard Baruch wryly observed: “To me, old age is always 15 years older than I am.” But pretending will never do. Scientists know that and are diligently seeking an answer to the problem. Yet “impressive medical advances of the past century have failed to provide the ultimate scientific objective, and a cure for aging remains elusive,” writes Macleans magazine.
“Despite the miracles of modern medicine,” says Sharon Begley in Newsweek, “the ceiling on human life span for most people still hovers around the biblical threescore years and ten. Life expectancy has ‘increased’ over the years not because more people are living longer, but because fewer people are dying young.”
Even if scientific wonders could find some way to keep the flower of life from fading as quickly, it is far simpler to add years to a man’s life than adding life to a man’s years. Very often, advancing years can bring unwanted physical and mental changes; loss of spouse or family members; reduction of income and significant activity; and often the loss of house, privacy, possessions, and community. So what is a person to do?
The autumn of life should be harvest time for the believer. What good is it to become bitter and frustrated by the aging process? This will do nothing but turn sour what could be life’s sweetest fruit. These days should be, “The last of life, for which the first was made” as Browning wrote.
There are others who would like to pretend that they have managed to elude the grasp of encroaching time. They talk like they are 40, act like they are 30, and dress like they are 20. The danger is that they will fritter away their most valuable days and miss the harvest entirely. Attempting to be younger than their years, they cannot fool time, and end up settling merely for immaturity.
Far better those who look life bravely in the eye and say with an unnamed Quaker of 82 years: “I’m going to live till I die . . . and then I’m going to live forever.” This living on, this running right to the finish line, is the spirit of Paul’s words: “Though the outward man perisheth, yet the inward man is renewed day by day.” How invigorating it is to meet saints well advanced in years whose spirits are still fresh, whose vision is keen, and whose affections are tender — bearing fruit in old age (Psalm 92:14).
And why not? John Wesley preached until his homecall at 88. Titian painted his greatest masterpiece at 85. Oliver Wendell Holmes wrote some of his most brilliant judicial decisions at 90. Some of Edison’s most productive years were between 70 and 80. And Gladstone was Prime Minister of Britain at 82.
When John Quincy Adams was 80, a friend asked him how he was doing. “John Quincy Adams himself is very well, thank you,” he replied, “but the house he lives in is sadly dilapidated. The building trembles with every wind, and I think that John Quincy Adams will have to move out of it before long. But he himself is very well.”
Autumn time is harvest time. So what if you’re 102. Through the power of prayer, the ministry of encouragement, and the grace of an ageless God, this could be one of the most wonderful and productive years of your life!
Written by J.B. Nicholson