“Those Were The Days My Friends!”

But we are citizens of heaven, where the Lord Jesus Christ lives. And we are eagerly waiting for him to return as our Savior. He will take our weak mortal bodies and change them into glorious bodies like his own, using the same power with which he will bring everything under his control. — Philippians 3:20-21

Knowing that my readers tend to be in the more mature age range, I feel safe writing this today. Besides, a much younger generation would tune it out anyway, as some have yet to experience the two laws of aging: Gravity and the Second Law of Thermodynamics! Remember those days when we all thought that our buff bodies and curly locks would always remain the same? Listen to Mary Hopkin’s hit song in 1968, “Those were the days my friends, we thought they’d never end.” It’ll bring back memories!

75 year-old author and teacher Ken Boa is my guest today. I loved his short article on “Aging” so much that I wanted to share it with all of you. Here’s what he had to say about the subject in his February 2021 Reflections article, “Modern Pensées”:

“Aging. No matter how hard we try, we can’t stop the process. Our declining bodies are a reminder of the brevity of our earthbound sojourn. The human tendency is to treat the temporal as if it will last forever and the eternal as something nebulous and far off. God uses the aging process to coerce us, sometimes against our will, to ask the fundamental questions of life: Who am I? Where did I come from? Why am I here? Where am I going?

Wisdom calls us to remember that we are mortal in this life but eternal in the next, and it is the eternal that will endure. If we are in Christ Jesus, our souls and bodies are in the process of being shaped and formed by God, through the power of the Holy Spirit, to enjoy eternity with Him. As our bodies age, decay, and weaken in this soul-forming world, it is a reminder that this is not our home, and it is a motivator to pursue that which will endure: the Word of God and our relationship with God and others.

Is God using the aging process to get our attention? Do we allow temporal things to distract us from what really matters? Do we often succumb to the tyranny of the urgent? Is the urgent crowding out the important (God’s Word and relationships) in our thoughts, words, and deeds, or are we cultivating that which will continue into eternity?”

That’s my goal at age 84 and counting. How about you? Maranatha!

Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. — 2 Corinthians 4:16-17