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By Phil Callaway
Let me ask you a question. It's been on my mind since a friend asked It during our bi-weekly gathering of. the 'Circle Of Six.' If you haven't heard of us yet, allow me to explain that we are six handsome middle-aged men who get together every other Tuesday to sample chocolate cheesecakes and consider deep questions such as, "I wonder if we should go on a diet?"
Of course we discuss other things, too. Lately, for instance, we've been talking about aging. The discussion started with an interesting question. A question I'd like you to consider: Do you look forward to growing old?
Of course, all of us in the Circle of Six had a different answer. Personally, I did my best to avoid the question as long as I could by stuffing my mouth full of cheesecake. Age is relative, I thought. Fifty is old when you're 15, but not when you're 90. Furthermore, aging is the one thing we can't do anything about. If we're alive, we're aging. But sooner or later we have to answer the question. And I had to admit that I don't look forward to growing old.
I'm not alone on this one. The TV show 20/20 ran a story on a European woman who is spending her $100,000 inheritance trying to look like a human version of Barbie. So far she has undergone over 100 plastic surgeries. But just like you and me, she is aging.
Consider for a minute some people who paint an entirely different picture of the aging process. Although not on the level of Noah, who became the father of three after turning 500 and completed the ark 100 years later, recent history is replete with the names of those who refuse to act their age. Those who, like the aging mosquito, aren't content to wait for an opening. They get in there and make one. Here are just a few:
• Leo Tolstoy learned to ride a bicycle at 67.
• At 75, Charles Schultz, the creator of the Peanuts comic strip, was still playing ice hockey.
• Claude Monet began painting his famous Water Lily series at age 76, finishing the work at age 85.
• Thomas Edison was 84 when he produced the telephone.
• In their 90s, Pianist Arthur Rubenstein and cellist Pablo Casals both performed professionally.
• Roget was updating his famous Thesaurus when he died at age 90.
• At 94, Leopold Stokowski signed a six-year recording contract.
• At 91, George Bernard Shaw was still writing plays. At 100, Grandma Moses was still painting pictures.
• Tesichi Igarishi celebrated his 100th birthday by climbing to the 12,395-foot high summit of Mount Fuji.
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I asked Gordon MacDonald, the author of numerous bestsellers including 'Ordering Your Private World,' what separates those who age gracefully from those who don't. Gordon, who has turned 60 (old to me!), told me that the elderly people he admires most share seven characteristics that have made their lives rich.
1. They are thankful people. Their conversation and correspondence are marked with appreciation.
2. They show enthusiastic interest in the accomplishments of the younger generation. Change is not their enemy but their friend.
3. They keep their minds sharp and agile. Theirs is not the world of yesterday, but today.
4. They are big picture people. They look at life from the largest point of view, resisting panic when sudden events grab the headlines.
5. They never retire. They may slow down and walk away from a job, but they still live life with a mission.
6. They are servants. They realize that if people are going to see the show, others will have to be backstage.
7. They are not afraid of death. It's not that dying doesn't bother them, but they fully understand the Apostle Paul's words: "For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain" (Philippians 1:21).
Since that meeting of the Circle of Six, I've done some reconsidering. And I've discovered that my idea of old age is changing. I used to think that life was lived on a hillside. That you went up, up, up, until you reached about 50, at which point you hit an unavoidable banana peel and began a swift descent down the other side.
Paul's words make me wonder if I've had it backwards. As we grow older, the things that matter in Heaven should matter more on earth. As we age, the stuff of earth should lose its value. For the Christian, the best is yet to come. Even if we've hit a banana peel, we know that there's cheesecake ahead.
 Phil Callaway speaks around the world and writes books like Making Life Rich Without Any Money (Harvest House). His website is www.philcallaway.ab.ca
July 26/2007
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