The oldest person on record, whose age has been verified according to Google, is a French woman, Jeanne Calment. She lived to the age of 122 years and 164 days, passing in 1997. In her lifetime, Calment met Vincent van Gogh (she says he was ugly and smelled of drink) and saw the Eiffel Tower being built. Her only grandson died in 1963. She was mentally sharp until the end, took up fencing in her 80s, and continued to cycle in her 100s.
Her “secret” for a long life did not involve particular health regimens (she smoked regularly up until the age of 110). The secret, she said, is, “Always keep your smile. That’s how I explain my long life. I think I will die laughing”.
The Bible says, “The length of our days is seventy years-or eighty, if we have the strength” (Psalm 90:10). That was evidently a fairly normal lifespan in King David’s day, and it covers a normal life today as well. So how do we get the strength to live past seventy or even eighty years? Sticking with a plain sense reading of the Scripture, the Bible says, “The joy of the Lord is your strength” (Nehemiah 8:10). It also says, “A merry heart does good like medicine, but a broken spirit dries the bones” (Proverbs 17:22).
Running the marathon of life requires endurance. And maintaining stamina through the race means we need to pace ourselves through the painful uphill grades and regather our strength on the downhill ones. Worrying about the pain in our chest and legs during a race does not help, but keeping a happy, joyful attitude does. Jeanne Calment latched on to a useful and important idea.
Image: Jeanne Calment at age 20, Sipa, Rex, PD, Wikimedia Commons, Changes/graphics added.
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