Lent and aging with Grace
One of my brothers once said to his doctor, “You’re not a good doctor. All of your patients are going to die.” Let’s pretend that is true. Let us think about it more seriously in this time of the soul we call Lent.
No matter our age, we all think about our mortality and the inevitability of death. And that leads us to ponder the afterlife. We try to make light of it, to make believe it will not happen to us. “How young can you die of old age?” (Steven Wright).
“I don’t want to achieve immortality through my work, I want to achieve it through not dying,” Woody Allen said. And he also quipped, “It’s not that I’m afraid to die, I just don’t want to be there when it happens.”
Daily Devotions shared an article on living with hope as we age, especially as life starts to slip away: “Growing old can be terrifying,” the article says. “We lose our strength. We forget things. We inch closer to death. But I am unafraid, because I know that when my life ends, I will enter a new world. My body and mind will be young again. And I will get to meet the Lord face to face.”
Scripture reassures us: “Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day” (2 Corinthians 4:16). And “We shall see Him as He is” (1 John 3:2).
Readers comments on the Daily Devotions article included: I'm 73. Can't do many of things I did in yesteryear, have lost physical strength, but I have no fear of aging. Getting old is a gift many have been deprived of. I live in the knowledge of the glory that awaits me when my time on Earth is through and I'm called home. I enjoy life on this beautiful rock, but it pales on the glory awaiting us.
Sometimes we are too busy to stop and look up! Another reader said, “When someone asks me, ‘How are you?’ I point to Heaven and say, ‘Better than I deserve and another day closer!’ I long to see my Savior but will continue walking here to do His will.”
Another reader said, “Hallelujah. Approaching seventy with high expectations that my destiny is still greater than my history. Goodness and mercy are running along with me, and when we are finished our journey together, I will live in the House of the Lord forever.”
Listening to seniors can be inspirational. Another said, “I need to always remember this is another day closer to Jesus, a new body, no more pain or sorrow. Amen.”
And yet another said, “Aging is an honour! Each day is closer to being with my savior forever!”
The Daily Devotions article gives us much more to be hopeful about. The Bible is honest about frailty—about dust, tears, and brief days. Even faithful people groan under pain and uncertainty. But that is how life under a fallen world looks.
As death draws nearer, you are not drifting into darkness. You are being led by a Shepherd who has already passed through death and returned, and He will not lose you on the way.
Our resurrection hope is in a new life with Jesus in God’s renewed creation. The same Lord who walked out of a sealed tomb will raise His people to share His life. Our future is not a lesser version of ourselves; it is a new self, healed and completed in Christ.
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