Some reflections on being 80

 

It’s  great to get to 80 in sound health.  Recently I came across an amusing quotation about being 80, which I reproduce here:

"Why, a man with any feeling ought to be ashamed of being eighty, let alone more. Where’s his religion, I should like to know, when he goes flying in the face of the Bible like that? Threescore-and-ten’s the mark, and no man with a conscience, and a proper sense of what’s expected of him, has any business to live longer."

(1843 Charles Dickens Martin Chuzzlewit, chapter 11)

The quotation is based on Psalm 90 in the Bible, which says ‘Our lives last seventy years or, if we are strong, eighty years. Even the best of them are struggle and sorrow; indeed, they pass quickly and we fly away.’

As a child I was given a bible and encouraged to read it every day: a habit which I have continued all my life and highly recommend.   I wrote about it in my blog entry for 10th December 2019 under the title 'The best story book in the world' 

 https://mpriorblog.blogspot.com/2019/12/v-behaviorurldefaultvmlo.html

(To read this, highlight the link above, and then click on 'Open Link')

Psalm 90 was written by that great leader of the Hebrews, Moses.  It’s intriguing that he says what he does here, putting our typical lifespan at 70 or 80 years, because he himself was 80 when he was given the responsibility of leading the Hebrews out of Egypt in the Exodus, which resulted in them being in the wilderness for 40 years before settling in the Promised Land. Moses led them through the desert, and died at the age of 120, his task complete.  Thus his most important work was given to him after the age of 80!  So 80 is not necessarily an end-point. It can just as easily be a starting point!

There have been three times in my life when it felt rather as though my end had come.

1^st – when I was 4 years old another 4-year old friend pushed me into a deep water-channel and ran off.   I was out of my depth and screaming. Fortunately a young factory-worker heard me and came out of the nearby factory and pulled me out. I walked home dripping.   I can’t imagine what my mother thought when I got home!

2^nd – many  years later we were on our way to Uganda in a Boeing 707 when we hit an air pocket whilst flying over Sudan. It may not have been as dangerous as it felt, but the plane suddenly dropped thousands of feet through the air and everyone came out of their seats, several of them hitting the ceiling.  Our baby son David, who was asleep in a carrycot, finished up two rows further forward, upside down on the floor. I now know what it feels like to be in a crashing plane!  Although the plane regained normal flight it certainly felt like a near-death experience.

 

 3^rd – much more recently I was driving the car on my own when I was pushed off the road by the driver behind me. (He later claimed in court that he had suffered from an epileptic fit – a story which the judge believed). As for me, I finished upside down at the side of the road. Had I hit a tree or a telephone post the consequences would probably have been fatal.

 

But here’s the thing: I emerged unscratched from all these experiences.    I have always felt that my life has had a plan to it, guided by God.  I have felt especially in the big things like changing jobs, moving house, getting married, that God has been in charge, looking after me.  (This is very comforting, and it’s a great privilege: much better than feeling that life is merely random!)  I have felt this even when things have seemed on the surface to be going wrong, such as when Lindsay my first wife became ill, and the illness became terminal. 

 

Lindsay, 1988

 

Or when I had to break contract, leave my job and return from Uganda to England with my family because of difficulties caused by the government of Idi Amin.   

Meeting Idi Amin in better times

 

 The plan changes all the time as I get older, and prayer is always involved.   So, on we go, and gradually I will experience the plan for my 80s, together with Wendy who is  such a help and support.