EDITORIAL: Balancing quantity & quality of life

Once upon a time, our family went to church with a man who wanted to live to be 140 years old.

He reportedly decided the key to longevity was eating garlic. Lots of garlic. Copious amounts of garlic. He served as our church’s Sunday school record-keeper, and his penchant for consuming mass quantities of garlic provided an indirect benefit for all the teachers: Before we ever entered our classrooms, we could tell if he’d delivered our attendance rolls. Whiff of garlic equals record books.

He kept the Sunday school records in a small, windowless office heated by a radiator. The space doubled as the Lost & Found room. At the time, our younger daughter, Molly, was about 6 or 7 years old, and she lost her white sweater. So, one Lord’s Day, we trekked through the basement catacombs to sift the detritus of left-behind things. It was a cold morning, and the radiator was cranked up, and the heat energized all those pent-up garlic fumes. We thought we would choke before we found the sweater. On the way back upstairs, Molly told me, “Daddy, if I had to smell like garlic all the time, I don’t think I’d want to live to be 140 years old.” Ah, the wisdom of youth.

The latest issue of U.S. News & World Report focuses on “How to Live to 100.” But Molly’s comment raises at least a couple of good questions: Why would anyone want to live to be extremely old? And how hold is old enough?

The first question surfaces often, in many contexts. Its poignancy appears most powerfully when an elderly person questions the accumulation of years. Grammar, my grandmother, will mark her 99th birthday this spring. She has told God and her family she is ready to live as long as the Lord wills, but she also reminds all of us (God included) she is ready to go home to heaven as soon as the Lord allows. Popo, her husband and my grandfather, has been gone almost a quarter-century. In fact, she has been the lone survivor of her generation in our family and her circle of friends for many years. Age exacts a toll on her body every day. She remains faithful, and yet she knows the reward of heaven is sweeter than any earthly tomorrow.

Surely, a Christian answers the “Why?” question differently than an unbeliever. If this physical life is ultimate, then struggle for every day, no matter what. But if this life is but one phase of eternity, then steward it well and anticipate the opportunities of heavenly commune with God and all the saints who have gone before.

That begs the second question, which isn’t really that difficult. Our task is not to worry about the number of years we accumulate. The Bible teaches us our bodies are temples of God, and we should treat them well. But we should leave the length of their existence up to God.

If we turn from fretting over the quantity of our years, we can focus on the quality of our days. Our bodies are the tools of our souls, and their purpose is to enable us to love and glorify God and do God’s work in this world. We should take care of them so they serve that purpose for as long as God desires, not so we can acquire birthdays as if they were any other brightly wrapped package.

So, when we turn our attention to the quality of our days, we think about how best to fulfill God’s purpose in this life. You can think of many ways to do that, but here’s a starter list:

• “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength” and “love your neighbor as yourself” (Mark 12:39-31).

• Act justly, love mercy and walk humbly with God (Micah 6:8).

• Feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, take in the stranger, clothe the naked, look after the sick and prisoners (Matthew 25:34-46).

• Go and make disciples, baptizing and teaching them (Matthew 28:19-20).