Dear Friends

Now I’m 41 I’ve got my midlife crisis out of the way, so I’m reflecting on what I have to look forward to as an Older Person. But being old isn’t what it used to be. When I was little, old age began when people retired from work in their sixties and reached for their slippers. Now the baby boomer generation are starting to retire – but they’re reaching for scuba gear. And people older than that are doing things that make me cheer. Did you know that our own Dr Leslie Green is hoping to mark his ninetieth year with a cruise up the Amazon? And Janet Brown, our worker with older people, tells me of a couple she visits in their own home: he’s over 100 and she’s over 90, but with proper support in place – including Janet’s help – they’re getting on with life.

Of course, old age isn’t all joy. There seems to be some sort of camouflage in having grey or white or receding hair – apparently, people become liable to stop seeing you, listening to you or treating you as a real person with life skills and experience. Your body and your mind may not be as reliable as once they were. And reports are starting to come out of ‘elder abuse’ – dreadful stories of fragile older people bullied by those who should be taking care of them.

Maybe this is a particular problem in our society: youth rules. People spend their money on cosmetic surgery or anti-wrinkle cream, to remove the external evidence of ageing. But leaving aside such cheats, even real healthcare advances won’t stop me getting more vulnerable in my old age. And they aren’t available everywhere. When Phil and Kerry Baiden worked in Madagascar last year, they took pictures of church life with them, and the Malagassis were amazed at the ages of the people pictured. How could they be so old, yet still alive and healthy? Paradoxically, in parts of the world where only a few reach what we think of as old age, there is greater respect for older people who have survived the many perils of life thus far than in our so-called advanced society.

If it’s not just time and leisure but decline and loss of status that I have to expect, can faith help? Many of the Bible’s starring roles are taken by older people: from Abraham and Sarah, too old to have a child, who head off into the blue on an invitation from God and go on to found a whole nation; to Simeon and Anna, old religious has-beens hanging around the Temple, who recognise God when a poor young couple turn up to give thanks for their first-born son. But those role models were thousands of years ago – what can our faith say to us as we, like every Christian generation before us, carry on the journey from birth to death?

Firstly, God’s love for us never depends on what we can or can’t do, but on who we are: God’s beloved children. If we remember that when we’re active, it will be easier to believe when we change from helpers into helped. Secondly, though he did it as a young man, Jesus has travelled before us that painful journey from strength and activity to weakness and passivity. And thirdly: if we follow him, our journey’s end is not in death, but in new life that will never grow old. That is what our faith says; but do you believe it? As I look towards old age, the question becomes more pressing.

Sarah Hall