This is not political commentary, though it is occasioned by events in the world of politics. And as I write about the reality of aging, I don’t intend a subtext of confession or concern. I am 72 years old and growing older, but, as far as I know, with no cause for alarm as to my physical or mental abilities. Those of you who think I should turn in my car keys may message me privately.
President Biden’s age, or perhaps more accurately, his aging, has become the central topic of political conversation since his first debate with Donald Trump on June 27. What appears to be a decline especially in some of the president’s cognitive functions is raising questions as to his political future and the viability of his plans for a second term.
The political issues are important, to be sure, but perhaps the personal reflection and inner conversation kindled in many of us by the public discourse are of greater consequence.
Every person on the planet is growing older. At some point, however, the reality of aging finds its way to the front of our thinking. We may begin to ponder that reality when a milestone birthday is passed or when we retire, when a last parent or good friend dies of age-related causes, or when some once-assumed physical – or cognitive – ability is lost to our years. All of us age. Time itself, in its time, insists that we pay attention to our aging.
As we contemplate the reality of aging and, yes, death, we may find ourselves like the poet raging against the dying of the light and determined to not go gently into that good night. Rage as we might, though, we age and the light dies.
Growing old, however, need not be a sorry surrender to the sad inevitability of loss and then death. Reflecting on the human journey through time, the Apostle Paul concludes, “So we do not lose heart. Even though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed day by day. For this slight, momentary affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all measure, because we look not at what can be seen but at what cannot be seen, for what can be seen is temporary, but what cannot be seen is eternal.” (2 Corinthians 4:16-18)
Aging, this slight momentary affliction, is marked more by hope than by despair when lived in the light of an eternal weight of glory beyond all measure. Even when strength fades and abilities diminish, we live in hope. Our hope is not just waiting for the unavoidable; it is joyful work and worship, perhaps redefined, but certainly not lost.
In his classic essay, “The Problem of Pain,” C.S. Lewis observes, “I have seen (people) grow better, not worse with advancing years” (as quoted in The Joyful Christian). Would that I might be among those who grow better, not worse with advancing age.
The pundits exhaust themselves with their frantic predictions and prognostications concerning presidential politics. We do well to pay them little attention. Rather, we will do better to take the opportunity offered by the headlines to think about our own advancing years and how we might, by God’s grace, grow better in them.