Resurrection-Powered Aging

photo by Stu Johnson

We live in the Pacific Northwest, where all too often, we spend our winter days under thick gray cloud cover. Then, when April arrives, we gleefully applaud sunshine, longer and brighter days, spring break, and most of all, the glory of Easter.

Of course, we cannot sidestep Good Friday, the day that marks the excruciating death of Jesus on the cross. The grief and agony of that event encapsulate the pain and loss we have known in our lives. And as we age, change and sorrow and crisis are not just moments in our existence; they are becoming a pattern. Sometimes we feel we cannot bear another transition or ending, yet they are pressed upon us anyway. Sometimes one right upon another. And, much like the tomb, it feels very dark

And yet, Easter morning comes! The resurrection of Jesus is the event that changes everything! Hope bursts forth from death. Light radiates out of the darkness. And incredibly, it is that same resurrection power that is realized within every one of our Good Friday experiences. People of faith, especially those who have lived a long time, understand that new life and hope emerge from death. They are miraculous, spectacular "God moments." 

The message of the power of the resurrection is one that an aging globe hungers for. If it is true that older adults experience more transitions, losses, and endings than at any other stage of life, it stands to reason that the message of the resurrection is one they desperately need to hear

We are at an unprecedented time in history when never before have so many people lived for so long! Today there is an opportunity for revival, renewal, and spiritual awakening among Boomers and older adults as we have never before witnessed. 


Paul said in Ephesians 1:17ff:  "I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which He has called you, the riches of His glorious inheritance in the saints, and His incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is like the working of his mighty strength, which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at the right hand in the heavenly realms."