Aging can have blessings and challenges for us, as we age

Aging can have blessings and challenges for us, as we age

It has been said that the great advantage of getting older is that we have learned from the mistakes we’ve made before.  So often, one of the great blessings of the maturity of years is that we grow in experience and wisdom.  Maturity comes with growing freedom, after the journey of youth.  We can become more secure and settled. We have often faced some of the biggest hurdles of our life.  We’ve likely experienced a number of losses and hurts and found ways to integrate those losses and hurts into our faith life.  We’ve probably moved beyond being angry at God for not doing what we’ve wanted God to do and more grateful for God’s faithful presence with us, especially during the most difficult times.  Aging can be wonderful when it involves maturing, especially maturing in our ability to relate with others with balance and generosity, and our ability to relate with God with a maturing faith.

Of course, aging can also be very challenging.  While aging can bring maturity, wisdom and an inner peace, it can involve diminishment and illness.  Though we gain from the experiences of our past, there is a natural wearing down of our bodies, as we age, even when we keep ourselves in good physical shape.  We experience that we just don’t have the agility, the energy, the facility with reacting that we used to have.  That experience is often progressive.  We feel it more and more in our 50’s, our 60’s, our 70’s, our 80’s and our 90’s.  And, as we age, various health problems can develop – chronic and critical ones.  They can further diminish us, as least lessen our experience of resilience.