Is 70 the new 80?

I turned 70 this week. Oscar Wilde had a theory. “Those whom the gods love, grow young.” But, at 70, I am not feeling the love of those gods.

 If you had asked me four months ago, I’d have told you that 70 didn’t seem all the old. But after battling a serious illness for more than three months, I suddenly seem quite old.

It started out with a fever and fatigue, night sweats and the sort of thing my doc had reason to believe was just a virus and would soon pass. It didn’t. Six weeks later I was diagnosed with endocarditis, an infection centered on an artificial aortic heart valve I’d had since 2010.

Doctors attacked the infection with massive amounts of antibiotics. Didn’t work. The infection worsened as parts of it broke off, wreaking havoc with my spleen. The old, diseased valve had to go and a new one installed. The valve was replaced and I am now recovering and feeling much better though the risk of reinfection in the first year and its high mortality rate hangs over us like the sword of Damocles.

So, as I reach 70 years of age, I am feeling older than I thought I would. A part of the experience contributing to that were eight hospitalizations and emergency room visits in a six-week period. During those times, I met a lot of people my age and older suffering far more from even worse medical conditions.

If you let it, your imagination can take you to a future where the aging process is defined by illnesses, medical care, and financial challenges. PBS reported a record number of older Americans are being driven to filing bankruptcy because politicians have allowed the social safety net to be weakened. Other sources report an increasing number of suicides among the elderly. Life ahead can begin to look rather grim on your 70^th birthday.

As my health improves and things get back to normal, I realize we can’t allow that sort of an imagined future take control of our lives. One has to focus on living. As long as we are still here, breathing the air and taking up space, God has a purpose for us and our job, now as much as it was when we were younger, is to figure out what it is.

This is the time of life to take seriously and to be grateful for whatever days we have left, to double down on making our remaining time worth the life God has given us. I am reminded of the Gospel of John, chapter 10 verse 10. Jesus says, “The thief comes but to steal and to kill and to destroy. I have come that you might have life and have it more abundantly.”

There is no greater “thief” than allowing ourselves to focus on death and how we might find ourselves at its door.

What is my fellow septuagenarians that emboldens you to have life and have it more abundantly? What is it that allows you to maintain a focus on living even as the doctor visits, medical care, and financial struggles become more a part of your lives?

For me, it begins with family; a loving wife and children and grandchildren too young to be without their grandpa. My oldest grandchild is eight, the youngest is five. They need engaged grandparents and engaging fully in their lives is a source of an abundant life.

Additionally, I am blessed to be able to continue serving a faith community that is committed to  service to others and social justice for all. Involving oneself in theologically-based advocacy for what Jesus called “the least of these” will keep the blood flowing.

For some of my friends, it’s their art, for others it’s travel, or community service.

Death will come on its own schedule. But it’s not here yet. We have a life to live. Or as Jonathan Swift put it, “May you live all the days of your life.”