Why the Christian View of Aging is Countercultural

Number Your Days The world’s false story of anti-aging is that aging is a disease that we fight or it is a malady that we conceal. You’re not supposed to show your age. The highest compliment that you can pay someone is, Wow, you look really young for your age. That’s a well-intended thing to say to someone. People have said it to me before, and I receive it in the spirit in which it’s given. But I think it’s worth noting how we prefer that compliment to one that says something like, Wow, your wisdom for your age is really significant to me. If you think about it as a younger person, when you move through the transition of someone just calling you by your name to calling you “ma’am” or “sir” or “Mr. So and So,” you may think, Wait, I’m too young for that! Dust to Dust Jen Wilkin In this biblical meditation on aging, Jen Wilkin draws poetic parallels between the first half of life and the second, inviting us to live fully at every stage. We have something in us that makes us feel like being perceived as old is about losing something. And that is actually not entirely false because our entire culture worships youth, and we understand aging as a journey into obsolescence and obscurity...