Living life to the full at eighty-one

I was born on 14 March 1944. To my surprise I have discovered that many famous people were born on 14 March: for instance, the great scientist Albert Einstein; the British actor Michael Caine; and the most successful Indian Bollywood start, Aamor Khan.

Perhaps the most significant event in world history which took place on 14 March was that on that day Julius Caesar was assassinated on 14 March by a mob including Cassius and Brutus.

But to return to my birth in 1944, Tuesday 14 March was a Tuesday. According to an on English nursery rhyme, “Tuesday’s child is full of grace”!

At about the same time as I was born at home in the East London suburb of Ilford, a German plane was shot down just 200 yards down the road. Sadly the pilot and his crew were all killed.

Now 81 years later, I will be 81 years of age.  As a result I will have exceeded the Biblical limit for men and women to live,  For, as the Psalmist wore, “The days of our life are 70 years, or perhaps eighty if we are strong: even then their span is only toil and trouble; they are soon gone and we fly away” (NRSV) or in the words of Eugene Peterson’s paraphrase The Message, “We live for seventy years or so (with luck we might make it to eighty). And what do we have to show for it? Trouble, toil and trouble and marker in the graveyard”!  This means that I have now exceeded the Biblical span for men and women. Not surprisingly I am not as fit as I was when I was a young man. Many would say that I now below to the ‘Crumblies’ generation. Thank God, I still remain in relatively good health and continue to live an active life. However, I am very conscious of my mortality. Not that this causes me any anxiety, because as a Christian dying is not a fearful thought, because – thanks to God’s grace – I know that when eventually I do die, I will be part of that vast crowd of saints who live in the presence of God and of his Son, Jesus Christ.

At this very moment, I am on the Queen Victoria, one of the Cunard ships which has taken me from Chile, stopping off in Peru and Ecuador, transiting the Panama Canal, visiting the Caribbean islands of Aruba and the Bahamas, before flying back from the USA back home to England. Yes, for Caroline and me one of the great joys of being retired is that we are able to go on cruises and have some great holidays. However, for me retirement is about far more than simply enjoying myself. First and foremost even although retired, I am still seeking to serve the Lord Jesus. The very writing of this blog is one aspect of my Christian service, as I seek to stimulate and encourage many ministers and lay leaders. I also seek to serve God through my Rotary club, where I have been asked to exercise a pastoral role for our members. Similarly in Chelmsford Cathedral, to which we now belong, I regularly speak at my mid-week fellowship group and at the Sunday Breakfast for the Bible. Another aspect of my seeking to serve God, is taking an active interest in my six grandchildren, and as the ‘patriarch’ of the wider family, encouraging all my many cousins.

Although we do enjoy viewing a limited number of television programmes, in no way am I a ‘couch potato’.  Instead, I enjoy listening to BBC Radio Three which features nonstop classical music; and we belong to the Thaxted Festival which arranges concerts for a six-week period in June and July. From time to time I go up to London to see a theatre production or to visit one of the art galleries. In addition, I am a lifetime member of English Heritage. In this way I seek to live life to the full, even although I am now 81.

Forgive me if this latest blog appears to be somewhat egocentric. However, for me the joy of writing this blog is that through my blogs I am now part of a large community of people who live not only in the UK, but also in many parts of the world. Every week as a result of my blogs I receive much positive feedback (and never a negative comment!) that I feel that I am part of an electronic Christian community, which takes an interest in not just what I write, but also in me as a person. Hence, I have dared to write this very personal piece about living life to the full at eighty-one.