That is the message stenciled on a piece of heavy stock paper. Recently someone sent that little bit of encouragement to Jean. You can imagine how she appreciates it The message has provoked some thought.

I’ve noticed how being "old" or "getting old" is a moving target. When I was a child I thought my pastor was an old man when he was in his forties. Actually, the perception of someone being "old" varies considerably when observing one individual or another. It has been a frequent source of surprise down through the years to discover that Mizz Jolly Active is the same age as old Sister Grouch Blossom.

Many years ago we were visiting my Grandma Adah. She was sitting by the window in her little enclosed porch. As we talked she would lift a set of old binoculars and peer down the road to the east. She said "What’s that old lady doing now?" I was trying to reconcile her query about the "old lady" with my presumption that the lady who used to live down there probably wasn’t as old as my grandmother. I asked if Mrs. So-and-so still lived down there. Grandma replied that she did. I said something to the effect that Mrs. So-and-so wasn’t as old as grandma "probably, what, just late 70’s or early 80’s?" To which Grandma responded, "Yes, and I was old, too, when I was her age."

My mother-in-law refers to certain older folks stating, "(they) ought to act (their) age." That does bring a question to mind, "How does one behave when ‘acting (their) age’?" Generally, most youngsters who are being instructed to act like "young ladies and gentlemen" are probably guilty of acting their age. It would seem that what is really desired is that they act older and wiser. As to the older and presumed wiser acting young, that also seems to be unbecoming in our society. Quite a perplexity to someone such as myself who is middle-aged (even that being disputed by one of my progeny, "How many people over 100 years old do you know?"). Okay, so "middle-age" is a hard label for me to justify statistically if one is looking at either "mean" or "average." I can’t help it if most of the world is now incredibly young and proliferate.

It has been apparent to me for several years that the "old folks" who don’t "act (their) age" and aren’t concerned with descriptions of current aches and pains are generally pretty proud of how old they are. Meanwhile those who are concerned with growing old typically aren’t managing it very gracefully. I have in mind quite a large number of elderly in my informal demographic study. I’ve watched and interacted with "volunteers" in medical institutions for many years. One of these precious elderly ladies told me, several years ago, that it wasn’t that she volunteered hundreds of hours each year because she was 83 and healthy. She said, "I’m 83 and healthy because I volunteer hundreds of hours each year." She is still volunteering.

I remember well the four-score plus lady who taught "Swedish" at the community college one evening a week, and continued to play the piano for nursing homes and senior citizen gatherings even though her hands were twisted with arthritis. Her sister-in-law, several years younger was disdainful of "Ruth" because "she doesn’t act her age." (Parenthetically, everyone loved "Ruth" but very few were much interested in the company of the sister-in-law.)

So, does old age come at a bad time? One winter day, a dear friend who was "ringing" bells with me for the Salvation Army said, "Jim, getting old is the easiest thing you will ever accomplish, if you don’t die." I would guess that if "a bad time" means you haven’t died yet, then any time you are defined as "old" and you can hear it it’s a pretty good time.

To all my "old" friends, get out there and don’t act your age! "Moses was a hundred and twenty years old when he died, yet his eyes were not weak nor his strength gone." (Deu. 34.7) I suppose if you are 120 years old, someone in their 80’s is still ‘just a kid’, what about someone your age? Instead of slowing down, why not kick it up a gear? Let’s LIVE life, and that, more abundantly.

(For more inspiration on this subject read about the ‘old’ man, Caleb, who was in his 80’s when he "went in to possess the land" that was occupied with giants. Joshua 14.6-15)