VERSE FOR TODAY: Therefore, we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day.
2 Corinthians 4:16
The 3.8 million United States seniors who celebrated their 85th birthday before the year 2000 constituted the fastest-growing segment of the population. By 2030, this group will number 9 million, and then will swell to 19 million by 2050. Rather than extending our life span, giving to others—putting others first—renews us spiritually and invigorates us.
Studies at Duke University’s Center of Aging and Human Development have clearly shown that people who devote their lives to thinking of others first instead of living for themselves will renew their strength and retard wasting away spiritually and physically. Here are some examples of people whose giving to others first produced a robust life:
v At 93, George Bernard Shaw wrote the play, Farfetched Fables
v At 90, Pablo Picasso was producing drawings and engravings
v At 89, Mary Baker Eddy directed the Christian Science Church
v At 89, Bob Hope finished a world tour for the USO
v At 89, Albert Schweitzer headed a hospital in Africa
v At 82, Winston Churchill wrote A History of the English Speaking Peoples
v At 81, Goethe finished his play, Faust
PRAYER: Lord it is easy to lose heart and quit. Our daily problems have caused us to want to think about wasting our talents and becoming self-absorbed. Give us the inner strength to think of others first and to use our talents for your glory.
AMEN
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