70 and beyond
By Rev. Arnel Tan

“Seventy years are given to us! Some may even reach eighty. But even the best of these years are filled with pain and trouble; soon they disappear, and we are gone.”
- Psalm 90:10 NLT

To the young ones, being 70 is something far down the lane of life. In fact just the thought of growing old seems not to sink in while energy is oozing and the body’s adrenaline’s supply is abundant. While those who have reached the border of 70 years or have somehow crossed over it think how unbelievable it is to be in this stage! Both extremes are facts and reality of living. I think the real issue is how are we going to live life at 70 or beyond for God’s glory?

Living for God’s glory does not exempt us from the realities that everyone else faces. Wrinkles and other attachments related to growing old are non negotiable realities all of us must face ( if we reach 70). Whether you are on your way to the 70th year or you have just arrived we must live it for God’s glory facing all the things attached therein. I think it should start with a balanced perspective of life. Life in itself is not an unending bliss. It’s both beautiful and painful to be alive. Here we face the interruptions of common colds or flu and the force reflections cancer obliges us. There’s both beauty and pain in what the Moses describe in his psalm.

The beauty of being alive at 70 is to see and review what has become of your life and the possible legacy you will leave. Being alive at 70 and beyond is high maintenance, as the Psalmist says “these years are filled with pain and trouble” brief statement and yet loaded with undeniable and unrelenting realities of growing old. From rheumatism to fatalism, from head ache and muscle ache to heart ache every 70 year old will face. How then shall these final chapter be well lived? I take comfort on what someone says that what is important in life is not how you begin but how you end.

You can only end well when all is well in your relationship with the Lord. While pain and trouble are hard and harsh fact of growing old, those who trust in the Lord Jesus Christ will face these storms with Christ. They face the fading years awaiting a blazing hope of a new beginning. They face life not with self propelled optimism but with solid faith in Christ. It pays to grow old in Jesus, for those who have not trusted Christ just grow old without a smile. Next is acceptance that this is God’s design, that God in grace found us and it is the same gracious Lord who will see us through. Don’t allow anger or bitterness or revenge mar the last pages of your life.. Learn to let go and see the younger generation enjoy their turn. At 70 be a blessing, where God’s grace flow abundantly through you, let your words be seasoned with grace and your attitude be unpretentiously nice. And when the final chord is broken, you will smile and say “I lived well for God’s glory,” let grace lead you home to the land where no one ever grow old. Gracious elderly folks will be greatly missed while grumpy ones will just fade and decay.