From sixty-four to seventy-seven

“Will you still need me, will you still feed me

When I’m sixty-four?”

A song for its time, written by the 14-year-old Paul McCartney in 1956. In those now distant days, 64 seemed positively old.

Just twelve years later I was doing Health Economics under the redoubtable Dorothy Hahn. Our working assumption then was that on average men in the UK died at 68 and women two years later.

And I recall, as a young curate in the late 1970s, when taking the funeral of someone who had died in their mid-50s, thinking they had lived a full life!

How things have changed.

Tomorrow, at the age of 77, I will be running my 374th ParkRun, and wonderfully this is nothing special. One Saturday last summer, for example, at the home of ParkRun, Bushy Park in West London, there were no less than 117 runners in their 80s.

Only yesterday, The Times ran a Sport England article under the headline: “Active over-55s drive rise in numbers of exercising adults.”

However, such is the ageing process that our times are so much slower. The challenge for me nowadays is being overtaken by a 11-year-old runner.  The reality is that I lose about 20 seconds each time the Earth circuits the sun. So while we are living so much longer, old age is merely postponed, not prevented.

That’s life, whether you like it or not. But how do we prepare for old age?

Currently in the New York Times there is a simple interactive quiz entitled How Well Will You Age? Take Our Quiz. Then the subtitle: The little daily decisions we make add up — and ultimately shape our longevity.

I had a go. All good fun, most of it, to me, fairly obvious: go to bed at a decent time, keep active, and do not dine out at McDonald’s every night. The quiz concludes with this summary: “Experts agree that there are five basic pillars of longevity: exercise, sleep, nutrition, emotional health (your general outlook on life and ability to manage stress) and social fitness (the strength and quality of your social relationships).”

And yet, for all its wisdom, a key pillar was missing. Something essential. What about the real me? What about the person I am becoming? Very simply, how do I avoid becoming a grumpy old man?

So the real question is not whether old age will come, but how we shall meet it. As Billy Graham wrote, “Old age isn’t always easy, but we will make our own lives better if we work at growing old gracefully; and God will help us.”

I will always remember a conversation with Cynthia not long before she died. This was some years ago — and so she could well have been younger than I am today. She was a lovely old saint, with the light of Christ shining through her.

She referred me to her favourite verse, from the apostle Paul: “So we do not lose heart. Even though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed day by day” (2 Corinthians 4:16).

This is what happens when we abide in Christ – our bodies may be gradually failing but when the Holy Spirit  is at work, the real me is being daily renewed.  We’re are being transformed to be like Jesus, day by day, “from glory to glory, as by the Spirit of the Lord.” (2 Corinthians 3:18)

That, it seems to me, is the true preparation for old age. Of course we should walk, run, sleep, eat wisely and value our friends. But beyond all that, we need the daily renewing grace of God. We need hearts kept soft by prayer, minds shaped by Scripture, sins confessed, thankfulness cultivated, and hope anchored not in our fitness or stamina, but in Christ.

For the Christian, ageing is never simply decline. It is also discipleship. The outward frame may weaken, but the inward life can become stronger, gentler, richer and more radiant. And if that is so, then growing old is not just something to endure. It is something to redeem.

So the Psalms show the way to a fulfilled life, as we determine to put down our roots into God. More to the point we bless others through the fruit of the Holy Spirit in our lives

“In old age they still produce fruit;

they are always green and full of sap

showing that the Lord is upright;he is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in him.

(Psalm 92: 13f)

Tomorrow I shall run my ParkRun, slower than just a few months ago, but hopefully not being lapped by the leading runners.  But by the grace of God, I hope also to run it with gratitude, humility and joy. For while my body ages, Christ is still at work — and his unfolding grace has not stopped yet.

So I run with perseverance looking forward to the race set out before me!