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How Long Will I Live?

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The life expectancy tables used by insurance companies give a clear picture about our longevity.  This explains why smokers pay fifty percent more on their insurance policies.  Research has verified that the cost of smoking entails more than the money spent on cigarettes.

Life expectancy in Western countries has been increasing steadily over the last century, from around fifty years of age to approaching eighty.  On average, women live about seven years longer than men.  However as lifestyles change, this gap is narrowing.  Interestingly, married men live on average over six years longer than never married men.  Marriage seems to have no such protective function for women.  Urban living raises the life expectancy of women, but lowers it for men.  Women in their later years, particularly after age eighty-five, suffer more health problems than men.

Once you pass the age of sixty-five the chances of reaching seventy-five are one in two.  After the age of seventy-five, the chances of reaching eighty-five are one in four.  Almost no one over the age of a hundred dies of a particular disease - they die of old age.  Two thirds of those over a hundred are women.

So many deaths of the ill and aged occur between midnight and breakfast time, that from a statistician's point of view, no matter how sick you are, if you are still alive at ten a.m. the odds are you will live another day.

So next time you're really sick, try to hang on until after breakfast.

Most of us make some attempt to adjust our lifestyle to enhance our chances of living just a little longer.  The drive to survive is very strong - strong enough to make us make significant lifestyle adjustments.  I have several friends who took an initial heart attack as a wake up call to make some changes.  Now they watch what they eat, get exercise and they try to avoid unnecessary stressors in their life.

Some of the most dramatic stories I've encountered are of those who have defied commonly held assumptions about our ability to cling to life with no other identifiable resources other than will power.  Some have gone for days without food and water far beyond what science expected was possible.  Others have lived through physical trauma that would have killed others.  Some have endured soul-numbing abuse or torture that would have rendered most of us blithering imbeciles if not corpses.

Life is the most precious gift we have.  We appreciate it.  We do what we can to prolong it.  Some are terrified by the prospect of it ending.

But physical life as we know it will end for all of us.   We will leave behind everything we know and take comfort in, and this is a disconcerting thought for those who have an appreciation only of the physical material universe.

When we add the spiritual dimension, things change significantly.  Understanding that God made us for life, not death, prompts us to move toward Him.  The Bible tells us that we can have a relationship with God because the death of His Son cleared away the obstacle that prevented that.

The ultimate way to extend your life is to have the spiritual life that God offers you.  Even though you physical body will continue its downward slide, you can experience renewal of spirit that will take us out of this life and into the next.

The Bible puts it very simply:  "This is the testimony: that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son.  He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life."  [1John 4:11-12] Embrace the life that God offers you today and never run out of time.