What’s age got to do with it?

Meet the lay preacher who wrote a book at 100 years of age because he couldn’t stand long enough to preach, and the 95-year-old who organised local church support for his care home.

They and others feature in Louise Morse’s book What’s Age Got to Do with It?, which offers a scriptural view of old age. Published by Monarch, the book challenges the thinking that being old is about retreating to a rocking chair and easy lifestyle.

CHANGING MINDS

Media and Communications Manager for Pilgrim Homes, Louise explains how God set in motion times, seasons and the ageing process. But many see themselves as ‘useless’ and are afraid of being a burden. Ageism has destroyed their self-image and expectations.

The author shows how to live the way God intended. Among her evidence, Louise cites social psychologist Ellen Langer who dared to ask the question, ‘Could we change our physical health by changing our minds?’ Dr Langer and her team devised ‘the Counterclockwise Study’. They took groups of eight men in their 80s on a week-long retreat in a house that had been retrofitted and taken back to 1959. They were to go back in time, to live in that year, not discussing anything after 1959.

ARTHRITIS DIMINISHED

People came out of the experience with their hearing and their memory – even the strength of their grip – significantly improved. Fingers lengthened as arthritis diminished and they had greater manual dexterity. There were improvements in height, weight, gait, posture, and scores in intelligence tests. ‘I’ve come to believe less and less that biology is destiny,’ said Dr Langer. ‘It’s not primarily our physical selves that limit us, but rather our mindsets about our physical limits…We must ask ourselves if any of the limits we perceive as real do exist.’