Finishing Well (6): Eat Well and Stay Moving
The way I see it--keeping in mind the secret and oft' surprising purposes of God that determine everything right down to the number of my days (Psalm 139:14; Psalm 90:12), and in no way presuming on anything--I have to figure that the possibilities are pretty good that I'm going to live to be eighty. That's the family history as far back as I can recall. Unless God has a different plan for me (which I gladly submit to in faith) I have to plan on living about four-score years.
Gayline (whose family history suggests more like a four-score and ten scenario) and I were talking about this some time ago and its implications for our lives today. What it means, we realized, is that each of us has a stewardship of a body for eight to nine decades, and it's our task to get the very most out of it that is possible for the glory of God. It means that we've got to treat the body in such a way as to maximize its usefulness for the kingdom for the duration.
If at all possible, as much as lies in me, I have to care for this body adequately so that I will be able to stay as active and vibrant as I can right up to the end. I don't want to mistreat my body in such a way that the final ten years are slowed down and inactive due to my neglect. It's possible that God will slow me down and keep me from full activity right up to the end for reasons known only to Him, but I want to make sure that if I'm slowed, it's not due to my poor stewardship of the body entrusted to me.
I'd love to be like Caleb (Joshua 14:6, 7, 10-12) and Moses (Deuteronomy 34:7) who were going strong even in their old age. I said yesterday that I'd love to die with my Bible in one hand. I'd also love to die with my other hand still on the plow.
For this reason I'm trying to follow the model of guys around me who are taking care to eat well and keep moving. One of my friends who's pushing 60 tells me that he just has to "keep moving". Exercise, running, marathons, all which keep the blood flowing and the body moving are important to him--and it's not because he's got an idolatrous love of life in this world and simply wants to live long. He's deliberately aiming to finish well, and he realizes that that's harder to do if you haven't run well in the care of your body all along the race.
We've got to eat well (not too much, not all the wrong things) and keep moving. As I say, I've benefited immensely from brothers just ahead of me in the journey who've inspired me to take care along the way. So I do my version of my friend's marathon: 12-16 miles per week of hard walking, constant attention to eat less than I want and as close to only what I need as possible, and a daily sufficient amount of sleep.
This way if I live to be eighty, I'll have a much greater chance of being Caleb-like, still taking territory for God and tearing down enemy strongholds in my old age; God-willing of course.
One final thought on all this: those who are fruitful and green in their old age are not those who rely on self or savings or strenuous diet and exercise. They are those who rely on God, pure and simple. Everything else is vanity. God alone keeps us going and keeps us green. Let's always keep it in mind as Jeremiah 17:5-8 and Psalm 92:12-15 tell us to do.
Gayline (whose family history suggests more like a four-score and ten scenario) and I were talking about this some time ago and its implications for our lives today. What it means, we realized, is that each of us has a stewardship of a body for eight to nine decades, and it's our task to get the very most out of it that is possible for the glory of God. It means that we've got to treat the body in such a way as to maximize its usefulness for the kingdom for the duration.
If at all possible, as much as lies in me, I have to care for this body adequately so that I will be able to stay as active and vibrant as I can right up to the end. I don't want to mistreat my body in such a way that the final ten years are slowed down and inactive due to my neglect. It's possible that God will slow me down and keep me from full activity right up to the end for reasons known only to Him, but I want to make sure that if I'm slowed, it's not due to my poor stewardship of the body entrusted to me.
I'd love to be like Caleb (Joshua 14:6, 7, 10-12) and Moses (Deuteronomy 34:7) who were going strong even in their old age. I said yesterday that I'd love to die with my Bible in one hand. I'd also love to die with my other hand still on the plow.
For this reason I'm trying to follow the model of guys around me who are taking care to eat well and keep moving. One of my friends who's pushing 60 tells me that he just has to "keep moving". Exercise, running, marathons, all which keep the blood flowing and the body moving are important to him--and it's not because he's got an idolatrous love of life in this world and simply wants to live long. He's deliberately aiming to finish well, and he realizes that that's harder to do if you haven't run well in the care of your body all along the race.
We've got to eat well (not too much, not all the wrong things) and keep moving. As I say, I've benefited immensely from brothers just ahead of me in the journey who've inspired me to take care along the way. So I do my version of my friend's marathon: 12-16 miles per week of hard walking, constant attention to eat less than I want and as close to only what I need as possible, and a daily sufficient amount of sleep.
This way if I live to be eighty, I'll have a much greater chance of being Caleb-like, still taking territory for God and tearing down enemy strongholds in my old age; God-willing of course.
One final thought on all this: those who are fruitful and green in their old age are not those who rely on self or savings or strenuous diet and exercise. They are those who rely on God, pure and simple. Everything else is vanity. God alone keeps us going and keeps us green. Let's always keep it in mind as Jeremiah 17:5-8 and Psalm 92:12-15 tell us to do.
Labels: Change, christian life, Old(er) Age, Retirement
2 Comments:
"Resolved,to maintain the strictest temperance in eating and drinking".
"Resolved, never to do any manner of thing whether in soul or body, less or more, but what tends to the glory of God; nor be, nor suffer it, if I can possibly avoid it".
(from Jonathan Edward's
Resolutions)
I always knew you to be a good Edwardsian!
I fear I am more a Thomist in this regard than an Edwardsian. But then, we Italians have struggled with this tendency for a long time! Too bad the Angelic Doctor wasn't able to meditate on Edwards' resolutions. And it would have done Luther some good too! He enjoyed his hearty German brews. But then again, maybe that's what kept him from an earlier death...
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