{"id":3656,"date":"2024-05-15T08:19:50","date_gmt":"2024-05-15T12:19:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/js1cd06kre.onrocket.site\/?p=3656"},"modified":"2024-05-15T11:07:29","modified_gmt":"2024-05-15T15:07:29","slug":"never-alone-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/2024\/05\/15\/never-alone-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Never Alone"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, <\/em>click here<\/a>

It\u2019s easy to argue that there has never been a better time to be old. 

Senior adults, in general, are the beneficiaries of more opportunities, better healthcare, greater disposable income, and longer life than any generation in history.

During the heyday of the Roman Empire, average life expectancy was 28. Today, across the world, it\u2019s approaching 75. 

This sunny picture, nevertheless, is crisscrossed by shadows. 

If you yearn for societal respect, this is far from the best time to be old.  As Atul Gawande notes in his 2014 bestseller Being Mortal<\/em>, people in previous generations used to lie to census takers about their age. They claimed to be older than they actually were. These days, people hope and pray they are misidentified as younger. 

A century ago, if you needed to understand something about the world, you would turn to an old-timer. Today we get our answers from Google. And if your computer is acting up, just ask your grandchild to make things right. 

Gawande believes there\u2019s an even greater crisis when it comes to aging.

Instead of being a time for celebration, reflection, and anticipation, growing old has largely become one medical intervention after another. He writes, \u201cWe in the medical world have proved alarmingly unprepared for it.\u201d

At the time of his writing, fewer than 300 new gerontologists \u2013 physicians specializing in senior medical care \u2013 were entering the work force every year, not nearly enough to replace retiring doctors and meet the overwhelming challenges of America\u2019s rapidly aging demographic. 

What do we actually know about aging? 

It\u2019s not easy<\/em>. 

\u201cWe just fall apart,\u201d says Felix Silverstone, the senior geriatrician at the Parker Jewish Institute in New York. \u201cOld age is a continuous series of losses.\u201d Philip Roth is even more pointed in his novel Everyman<\/em>: \u201cOld age is not a battle.  Old age is a massacre.\u201d

Gawande points out that it\u2019s all too easy to address men and women in their eighth and ninth decades of life and focus on a single question: \u201cHow can I help you live a few more weeks or months or years?\u201d

But that\u2019s not the question most older adults really care about.

The real question is how to make life worth living, even when we\u2019re feeble and frail and less able to fend for ourselves. Where can we find companionship in the face of loneliness? How can we experience meaning in the midst of weakness? Who can impart to us an enduring sense of dignity? 

Gawande says it well: \u201cOur most cruel failure in how we treat the sick and aged is the failure to recognize that they have priorities beyond merely being safe and living longer; that the chance to shape one\u2019s story is essential to sustaining meaning in life; that we have the opportunity to refashion our institutions, our culture, and our conversations in ways that transform the possibilities for the last chapters of everyone\u2019s lives.\u201d

What do we learn in Scripture about growing old?

We get the very same answer: It\u2019s not easy<\/em>. 

But we also learn that aging does not signify the end of life. It\u2019s the journey we take on the way to an experience of life that will never come to an end.

Take a few moments to assess everything you have today. Here\u2019s the sobering truth: It\u2019s all going to slip through your fingers. Sooner or later you\u2019re going to have to let go of your job, your house, your pets, and your favorite possessions. One by one, you\u2019ll part company with everyone you love \u2013 your parents, your friends, your spouse, your kids. Your body will progressively let you down \u2013 that includes your hearing, your eyesight, your memory, and even your desire to get up at the start of a new day. 

It\u2019s all going to slip through your fingers, and there\u2019s nothing you can do about it.

But that\u2019s OK.

You can never slip through God\u2019s fingers. He will never let you go.

As Jesus said to that beleaguered, wretched, remorseful, yet hopeful thief dying not far from him on Calvary, \u201cTruly I tell you, today you shall be with me in Paradise\u201d (Luke 23:33).

Every word is a marvel.  Truly<\/strong>: \u201cYou can trust me.\u201d Today<\/strong>: \u201cYou won\u2019t have to wait long.\u201d Paradise<\/strong>: \u201cYou can\u2019t even imagine what you\u2019re about to experience.\u201d And best of all, with me<\/strong>: \u201cI\u2019m with you now, and I\u2019ll be with you then; you\u2019ve never been alone, even on those days you had no idea.\u201d 

Old age can feel like a never-ending series of losses.

But it can also be a time of never-ending reminders that we\u2019re not walking this path by ourselves.

The Creator who\u2019s got the whole world in his hands has got you, too. 
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To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, click here It\u2019s easy to argue that there has never been a better time to be old.  Senior adults, in general, are the beneficiaries of more opportunities, better healthcare, greater disposable income, and longer life than any generation in history. During the heyday of the Roman Empire, average life expectancy was 28. Today,… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3657,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[171,471,397],"class_list":["post-3656","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-aging","tag-dying","tag-gods-presence"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3656","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3656"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3656\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3659,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3656\/revisions\/3659"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3657"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3656"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3656"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3656"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}