Searching for the Secret to a Long Life

Remember the story of Spanish explorer Ponce de Leon searching for the legendary “Fountain of Youth” in the 1500’s? I heard there’s a rumor going around that he currently resides in St. Augustine, Florida and spends his days watching reruns of “Dora the Explorer.”

Going through my email recently a headline caught my eye. It read, “Harvard Study Shows Unexpected Key to Long Life.” I didn’t take the time to read the article, but I thought everybody knew the secret to a long life: Just avoid dying. (Good luck with that.)

 

I’ve read a few novels and seen science-fiction films and TV shows about people who somehow achieved immortality. There’s an episode of the old “Twilight Zone” dealing with that theme that I especially enjoyed. What would you do – how would you react – if somehow you stumbled across a Fountain of Youth or ingested some kind of elixir that enabled you to live forever?

 

I’ve pondered this on occasion. My conclusion is it wouldn’t be all that great a deal. Think about it: All of your family members and friends eventually would pass away, but you’d keep hanging on. In a film I viewed recently, the indestructible lady had to keep inventing new identities to avoid raising suspicions about why she never aged or became ill. Hers had become a lonely existence; after a century or so she became tired of it. She was actually relieved when she became mortal again.

 

Then again, the Bible clearly and unwaveringly addresses the prospect of not a long life, but a forever life. The best-known verse of all declares, “For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16). 

 

When Jesus Christ said this, He clearly wasn’t offering an assurance of not experiencing physical death. Rather, it was His promise that for those who trust in Him, death is merely a step into what we might term, “the other side of eternity.”

 

Sometime later, in comforting Martha, whose brother Lazarus had just died, Jesus said, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in Me will live, even though he dies. And everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die. Do you believe this?” (John 11:25-26). Then, as if to demonstrate His power over life and death, Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead – a foreshadowing of His own resurrection after His crucifixion.

 

We could cite numerous other passages that offer the same assurance, but here are just two more to consider: In Titus 1:2 the apostle Paul writes about, “a faith and knowledge resting in the hope of eternal life, which God, who does not lie, promised before the beginning of time.” This, Paul made clear, was not a “hope-so” faith, but a confident assurance, an earnest expectation for all who follow Christ.

 

And another apostle, John, asserts, “And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God has not life. I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life” (1 John 5:11-13).

 

No doubt, scientists and physicians will continue their search for the keys or secrets to longer life. And that’s not a bad thing. But death for us all is inevitable, even more than taxes. It’s just a matter of when. To date, the mortality rate for humankind – and all living things – has been 100 percent. But by faith in Jesus Christ and His transforming power, we need not dread death. We’re assured that when our days on this earth come to an end, there’s a far more glorious life to come, beyond anything our finite minds can comprehend.

 

As the two most pivotal days on the Christian calendar approach, Good Friday and Easter, we can rejoice in the promise Jesus gave to His followers: “I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of My hand. My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of My Father’s hand” (John 10:28-29).

 

For now, we can do as King Solomon admonished in Ecclesiastes 5:18, “I realized that it is good and proper for a man to eat and drink, and to find satisfaction in his toilsome labor under the sun during the few days of life God has given him – for this is his lot.” And then, for everyone who knows and follows Jesus Christ, real life will begin.

Timing Isn’t Everything, But It’s Important

The adage informs us that “timing is everything.” I’m sure there’s quite a bit of truth to that, but sometimes it gets a bit confusing.

 

For instance, we’ve probably all experienced being in the right place at the right time. I remember applying for a job once just as the previous editor of the newspaper had resigned. My timing couldn’t have been better. It turned out to be a great job for me, a giant step along my career path.

 

However, we also hear about people being at the right place at the wrong time. Does that mean arriving at the right airport gate, but five minutes after the plane had begun to taxi down the runway? Or applying for a job right after it's been filled?

 

We often hear about people being at the wrong place at the wrong time. Tragic crimes that happen outside a bar at 2:30 in the morning come immediately to mind. Wrong place – and definitely the wrong time. But what about being at the wrong place at the right time? Is there ever a right time to be at the wrong place? 

 

I’ve been pondering the whole timing is everything thing. Especially concerning our relationship with God. Take, for example, the account of Jesus; His friend Lazarus, who was gravely ill; and his sisters, Mary and Martha. In John 11 it says, “the sisters sent word to Jesus, ‘Lord, the one you love is sick.’” By this time, Jesus’ healing powers were well-known, so the sisters obviously were begging for help.

Did Jesus tell His followers, “Drop everything, guys, Lazarus is really sick. We need to go assist him immediately”? Nope. Instead, Jesus responded, “This sickness will not end in death. No, it is for God’s glory so that God’s Son may be glorified through it.” Then, even though He fully understood the sisters’ distress and their urgent plea, the passage says, “He stayed where He was two more days.” 

 

Wow! The first time I read this passage, it made me think of the sarcastic EMT who quipped, “When seconds count, we’re only minutes away!” But Jesus knew what He was doing. He wasn’t uncaring, nor was He indifferent. He had a plan.

 

After the two days He announced, “Let us go back to Judea…. Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I am going there to wake him up.” His disciples, often a clueless bunch, shrugged their shoulders. “‘Lord, if he sleeps, he will get better.’” So Jesus clarified the situation:“Lazarus is dead, and for your sake I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.” 

 

If you’re familiar with the “rest of the story,” Jesus arrived after Lazarus had already been in his tomb for four days. The two sisters separately ran to greet him, but both declared, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” He went to the tomb and, observing the grief of the sisters and Lazarus’s other family members and friends, did what’s described by the Bible’s shortest verse: “Jesus wept.”

 

However, His tears were not in mourning for his deceased friend; they reflected the empathy He felt for those who grieved, and also for the pain of a world ravaged by sin. Because Jesus’ next step was to raise Lazarus from the dead, stating why He had waited to respond: “…that they may believe that [God the Father] sent Me.”

 

Even though this story happened 2,000 years ago, there’s much we can learn from it for today. It’s not just about Jesus’ miraculous powers, although that’s significant enough. It also dramatically demonstrates why God’s timing frequently isn’t the same as ours.

 

We pray for the healing of a diseased loved one, implying, “and right now, please.” Or we pray to find a job – or a new one – and wonder why the Lord seems so slow in answering. We pray about a difficult marriage, broken relationships, or financial struggles, and fret because God doesn’t seem to be paying attention.

 

If the Lord were to explain to us at those moments – and He’s under no obligation to explain anything He does – He might indeed say, “Timing is everything.” He may be ordering circumstances to provide us with an answer that surpasses what we were asking for, because He is “able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us” (Ephesians 3:20).

 

God also might be timing His response so that when it comes, there can be no doubt that He is the source of the solution. In the passage about Jesus and Lazarus, the Lord told Mary, Martha and His other followers, “Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?” (John 11:40).

 

We were created to love the Lord, to trust Him, and as an opening statement from the old Westminster Confession says, “Man’s chief end is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.” Since this doesn’t come to us naturally, sometimes the best way He can teach this to us is through His divine and perfect timing. Even Jesus’ death, burial and resurrection took place “at just the right time” (Romans 5:6).

 

So as we consider whether “timing is everything,” we can trust that the God who knows everything also knows the right timing. 

Good News to Cry About

Remember when the Four Seasons sang, “Big Girls Don’t Cry”? According to the adage, grown men are tough – they also don’t cry. It would seem crying is both unmanly – and un-girly, as well. Sorry, I can’t agree. Why else would God have given us tear ducts? They don’t disappear when babies grow into adolescents.

The right - and need - to cry isn't
restricted to infants.

Over the course of my lifetime I’ve found occasions for shedding tears: the passing of close friends and family members; overwhelming career and personal situations; crushing disappointments. I sometimes even cry at Hallmark movies, too, but that’s different. Happily-ever-after endings have always gotten to me; after so much reality in everyday life, I don’t need “reality TV,” too. A good ole tear-jerking fantasy once in a while can do wonders for the psyche.

Elements of society, however, seem determined to eliminate the causes for crying. Isn’t that why “participation trophies” were invented, so little Johnny or Jenny won’t feel badly because some other teams – or teammates – are more proficient at playing the game than they are?

Unfortunate as it may seem, life often serves up circumstances deserving a good cry. Things are going along perfectly well, then all of a sudden, they aren’t. Either we react by crying, or as a friend used to tell me, sometimes we have to laugh to keep from crying. As Proverbs 14:13 points out, ”Even in laughter the heart may ache, and joy may end in grief.”

When those times come, and no one escapes them, we can take heart because of two words from the Bible: “Jesus wept.” These two words, consisting of nine letters, comprise the entirety of John 11:35, the shortest verse in the Bible; at least in English translations. Despite their brevity, these two words – a proper noun and a verb – are packed with profound meaning.

What’s the big deal about Jesus crying? The context of the verse was Lazarus, brother of Jesus’ friends Mary and Martha, had died. Several days later, Jesus encountered the sisters, who both said, “if you had been there, my brother would not have died” (John 11:21,32). The next verse states that Jesus, observing everyone weeping over Lazarus’ death, “was deeply moved in spirit and troubled.” After asking to see where Lazarus’ body had been taken, He wept.

Theologians disagree on exactly what prompted Jesus to weep. Some say he was grieving the passing of Lazarus. Others say He was responding to the heartache his friends experienced. There are those who say it was because people – even close friends – failed to realize who He truly was. Still others conclude Jesus cried for an even deeper reason, knowing how the world’s brokenness, because of sin and man’s rebellion against God, had brought painful, tragic consequences.

Maybe we can ask one day: “Jesus, You remember that time when Lazarus died and You wept? What was that really about?” I suspect when we see Him face to face as the Scriptures promise, it will be a moot question. Nevertheless, those two words carry great significance for us, not only for the sweet by and by, but even more for the nasty now and now.

Many verses in the Bible offer encouragement and hope for difficult times, but reading that Jesus wept provides the assurance that when times of great pain and sorrow do come, the Lord can truly say, “I understand.”

An Old Testament prophecy of the coming Messiah described Him as “a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering” (Isaiah 53:3). Another translation says He was “acquainted with grief.” Jesus did not come to the world in human form to slip through life without experiencing the depth and breadth of what it means to be truly human.

In practical terms, this means when we pray and present to Him the trials and travail we’re facing, He can relate to us from firsthand experience. As Hebrews 4:15 tells us, “we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are – yet was without sin.” And I believe this includes our times of grief and despair.

So, when we read the simple words, “Jesus wept,” they deliver great news. He can assure us, “I have been there. I have done that. I can understand what you’re going through.”