davidbowerkingwood

Cake art by Adele Bower

What is the Reality of Aging?

I have found it interesting to watch contemporary efforts to combat aging; if you use the web to search for anti-aging products, within seconds around 4,090,000 hits will be produced. The effort to stop or reverse the aging process is a really big business!

This is all a massive amount of self-deception as there is really no product that can stop or reverse the aging process! While there may be some products that can appear to conceal the process, there is no product that can really accomplish that goal.

The truth of the matter is aging is a natural part of the human experience from the moment of conception to the day we leave our mortal bodies behind! You’ll notice I avoid the word die as the Bible explains we are immortal by nature and will never die!

While it is true that we will leave our mortal tents behind, our living essence is created in the image of God and will never die! The Bible goes on to explain our days in this tent have been foreordained by God. In Psalms 139:16 it is written:

¹⁶ You saw me before I was born.
    Every day of my life was recorded in your book.
Every moment was laid out
    before a single day had passed.

A related topic would be the reduction of telomeres as the body ages; it appears we have a built-in timer that determines how long a cell will replicate. I have written more on this topic in an essay on aging.

Perceptions of Aging

In the very young, aging is an important achievement in life. It is not unusual for a child to carefully point out that they are their age plus one-half as they move toward their next year of life. If they are ten and one-half, they are quick to point that out!

They sometimes mention they are not a baby anymore but have grown far past that point in life. Most ten-year-old boys would be horrified if their parents wanted to dress them in baby clothes and take them out in a baby stroller with a pacifier stuck in their mouths!

Being a teen-ager is cool but being in your 20’s is even better; now you’re an adult and can live life the way you want!

Somewhere, over the next fifteen or twenty years, a certain apprehension begins to develop as one realizes that time is passing at an ever-faster rate. There are observable changes that are starting to take place that are not altogether welcome.

This is where the “anti-aging” products begin to increase in importance. Whereas in one’s youth, getting older was a badge of honor, now it is becoming something else. To varying degrees, based on the individual, steps must be taken to delay the changes that seem to be coming with increasing rapidity.

While some societies have a high regard for the wisdom and experience the years can bring; others see aging as an increasing sign of irrelevance. If you’re old you’re out of touch with the present reality!

In such societies, one must do all one can to stop or reverse the progression into the age of irrelevance.

The Inevitability of Aging

As soon as we are born, we are all in the process of aging; there is no alternative other than the death of our mortal bodies, or tents as the Bible calls them.

The Bible seeks to calm our fears when God reveals the truth of our situation for born-again Christians. In 2 Corinthians 5:1-5 it is written:

“5 For we know that when this earthly tent we live in is taken down (that is, when we die and leave this earthly body), we will have a house in heaven, an eternal body made for us by God himself and not by human hands. ² We grow weary in our present bodies, and we long to put on our heavenly bodies like new clothing. ³ For we will put on heavenly bodies; we will not be spirits without bodies.⁴ While we live in these earthly bodies, we groan and sigh, but it’s not that we want to die and get rid of these bodies that clothe us. Rather, we want to put on our new bodies so that these dying bodies will be swallowed up by life. ⁵ God himself has prepared us for this, and as a guarantee he has given us his Holy Spirit.”

I’m ninety and one-half and proud of it; I have made peace with the realities of aging that I live with every day. I’ll admit that there are challenges to life at 90 and 1/2 years but I understand these challenges have come to pass!

I delight myself in knowing that all my times are in the hands of my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. I rejoice in the sure knowledge that he is working all things together for my good; this is his promise to me, and I believe it without any reservation!

Rather than waste our time worrying about the inevitable; I’m convinced we would be much better off following God’s advice to us in Philippians 4:4-9 where it is written:

⁴ Always be full of joy in the Lord. I say it again—rejoice! ⁵ Let everyone see that you are considerate in all you do. Remember, the Lord is coming soon.

⁶ Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. ⁷ Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.

⁸ And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise. ⁹ Keep putting into practice all you learned and received from me—everything you heard from me and saw me doing. Then the God of peace will be with you.”