![\"\"](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/46\/2013\/12\/BC_RichinYears_1.jpg\" "\\"BC_RichinYears_1\\"")
<\/a>\u201cRich in Years\u201d is a book that is written by a senior for seniors to help them find meaning and purpose in their later years.\u00a0 The book examines many of the issues that seniors face and offers suggestions on how to not just live with \u2013 but when possible \u2013 to rise above those issues in productive and fulfilling ways.<\/p>\nThere is a fear among those advancing in years that they will be forgotten \u2013 not just while living, but after they have passed from this earth.\u00a0 No one wants to be forgotten \u2013 to have your life simply disappear without leaving a legacy behind. In this day and age when medical and scientific advances contribute to longer life spans, we have \u201ca false sense of immortality.\u201d\u00a0 Rather than being interested in longer lives, Arnold suggests we need to realize that God\u2019s purpose for us isn\u2019t to live longer but to live a life with \u201cdeepened meaning.\u201d<\/p>\n
Still, the process of aging is challenging, even though we may possess greater health at a more advanced age than did our ancestors.\u00a0 But lurking in the back of our mind is the sound of the clock and its incessant ticking that tells us all that we\u2019ve ever known is coming to an end.<\/p>\n
So what does Arnold suggest?\u00a0 He suggests that it matters greatly where we focus our attention.\u00a0 If we focus on failures and stew over our regrets, we will become miserable, despicable creatures.\u00a0 Instead, if we focus on gratitude for the life we have lived; our later years will be much more pleasant. Arnold refers to Meister Eckhart who suggested that as our years advance and slip rapidly by, there should be only one phrase left in our vocabulary: \u201cThank you.\u201d<\/p>\n
A key emphasis of Arnold is that we need to invest our later years in those who are younger.\u00a0 We need to form friendships with younger persons for a variety of reasons: 1) if we only have friends among our own age group, eventually they will all pass on and we will be left alone and lonely; 2) the passing of the years impart wisdom that needs to be shared with rising generations; 3) sharing life lessons with our loved ones who are younger may spare them great pain and anguish.\u00a0 It is precisely this type of sharing that has the power to impart meaning to life \u2013 and as a nice by-product, it helps one leave a legacy by which one will be remembered.<\/p>\n
Looking at what we can give, rather than what we have lost and can no longer give, lifts us and encourages us to rise up in the morning with purpose \u2013 even long after the weariness of the body has descended upon us.<\/p>\n
While Arnold deals with topics such as aging, coping with changes, loneliness, purpose, faith, dementia, finding peace and dying, the thrust of the book is to stay involved, to engage life fully even as the shadows grow long and day is nearly over.\u00a0 Perseverance, persistence, patience \u2013 these are all called for as we near the end of life\u2019s journey.\u00a0 It is not a time to faint or grow weary, but to finish well with all the strength and determination we can muster.\u00a0 While our bodies may have grown frail and weary, our souls are being renewed each day and we can, at the same moment as we are physically weaker, we can be spiritually stronger than ever.<\/p>\n
\u201c\u2018How\u2019 we grow old is more important than how \u2018old\u2019 we grow.\u201d\u00a0 Focus on quality, not quantity.\u00a0 Focus on people, not things.\u00a0 Focus on the positive not the negative.\u00a0 Realize that the act of dying is \u201cthe final, hardest test of courage\u201d and realize that God\u2019s strength will be perfected in our weakness.<\/p>\n
We who are believers still fear death for the simple reason that it was not meant to be our destiny \u2013 it is, if I may say, our mortal enemy.\u00a0 While the years of our old age may be marked with pains, loneliness and depression, we can take courage and hope and inspiration from knowing that we aren\u2019t just facing mortality \u201cwe are nearing immortality.\u201d\u00a0 And that is something worth celebrating!<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/46\/2013\/12\/Galen_opt-for-posts-150x150.jpg\" "\\"Galen_opt")
<\/a>Galen Dalrymple works for Medical Ambassadors International as the Field Curriculum Coordinator and lives in Northern California with his wife, Laurel, and yellow lab, Lucy. His passions are his family, photography, travel, and doing what he can to alleviate suffering and injustice as a call from Jesus.\u00a0 <\/em><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Rising above the issues that seniors face in their later years: A review of \u201cRich in Years\u201d by Johann Christoph Arnold. By Galen Dalrymple \u00a0 \u201cRich in Years\u201d is a book that is written by a senior for seniors to help them find meaning and purpose in their later years.\u00a0 The book examines many of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4289,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1283,1043,463,1102,472],"tags":[1391,1284],"class_list":["post-4288","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-aging","category-family","category-galen-d","category-guest-posts","category-pastoral-resources","tag-aging","tag-book-reviews"],"yoast_head":"\n
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