DON'T BLINK

The world's oldest man died yesterday, a 112-year old from Japan. But it looks like this "age" record will quickly be broken. Based on recent headlines, the older population (persons 65 years or older) will at least double by the year 2050. 

Not sure why people are living longer. I guess it just happens...We get up each day, the years accumulate; and suddenly we're old!

But getting old doesn't mean the end of a productive life. This morning I read what happened to King David after he was told by his lifetime warriors that he was too old to continue fighting in the army. He was 60 years old when they sent him home from the battlefield. But he was not sent home because his usefulness was over. Rather, David's men sent him home because of his usefulness. He had become too valuable to risk losing in battle. And when David arrived home, he began dreaming bigger dreams than ever before. 

Since bible times, a lot of "useful" examples have been left by others:

• Ronald Reagan turned 70 seventeen days after entering the office of President.
• Edison was busy in his lab at 83.
• Benjamin Franklin governed Pennsylvania at 79.
• Winston Churchill led Great Britain at 76.
• Laura Ingalls Wilder wrote most of the stories which became TV's Little House on the Prairie during her 72-90 age years.
• Cecil B DeMille produced the movie Ten Commandments at 87.
• Grandma Moses decided at 76 she was bored with knitting and took up painting.
• Michelangelo created Saint Peter's Basilica in Rome after he was 70.

I guess sooner or later everyone begins to wonder what it will be like when they become part of the aging population:

"My luck is so bad that if I bought a cemetery, people would stop dying." (Rodney Dangerfield)

"We could certainly slow the aging process down if it had to work its way through Congress." (Will Rogers)

"By the time a man is wise enough to watch his step, he's too old to go anywhere." (Billy Crystal) 

For me, I'll join Robert Baker: "As I grow older, I care less about what people think of me and more about what God thinks of me, since I expect to be with Him much longer than with you.”

Don't blink. You will be one day older today!