The Big Five-Something

This morning I woke up feeling no different than I did when I went to sleep the night before. But something did happen. I awakened another year older. It's no big deal and except for the date on the calendar, it's just another day. As that great sage, Satchel Paige, once said, "How old would you be if you didn't know how old you was?"

However, these pesky annual events do have a way of creeping up on you. I heard about a woman who was more athletically inclined than her husband and frequently would engage in biking, canoeing, and other strenuous activities. When her husband hit sixty, he came inside after a hard day of yard work and collapsed into his easy chair, bemoaning the aches and pains of his advancing age.

Attempting to comfort him, his wife reminded him that when they were newlyweds, they had looked forward to growing old together.

"Yes," he replied, "but you haven't kept your end of the bargain."

Someone once said that middle age is when broadness of the mind and narrowness of the waist change places.

I am convinced, though, that as long as we draw breath, God has a purpose for us. We are to be about His business until we are called to stand before Him. The Roman scholar Cato started to study Greek when he was over eighty years old. Someone asked him why he tackled such a difficult task at his age. Cato replied, "It's the earliest age I have left."

On October 16, 1995, Jeanne Calment of Paris was inducted into the Guinness Book of World Records by becoming the oldest human on record - over 120 years of age. She was born in 1875, a year before the telephone was invented.

Jeanne remembered the construction of the Eiffel Tower and remembered selling colored pencils to the famed Vincent Van Gogh. She survived twenty-seven French presidents during her life. When asked, "What's the secret to your long life?" she responded, "Laughter!"

It's no wonder the Bible tells us in Proverbs 17:22 that "a cheerful heart is good medicine."

Besides, part of my motivation is to live long enough to be a problem to my children!