I just turned 71 and for almost all of my life I experienced perfect health. But two years ago a tumor was found on my adrenal gland and many complications happened when the doctors attempted to remove it. After the operation I was in intensive care for more than a month. The doctors told my wife that I died three times and came back to life. They also told her that I was going to die for good shortly and that a corpse had to be removed from the hospital within 24 hours so she was checking out what to do with my body.
Needless to say I survived!
Treasure your good health while you still have it because the landscape of old folks is littered with sad tales about declining health. For some reason I thought that I was exempt from these things but now I realize that no one is exempt!
The Bible says in
Hebrews 9:27 "And as it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment," That word, "appointed" is a
key word in that verse. It means that a time to die was previously chosen/designated for all of us. To me this means that no matter what we think, say or do, that day is written in stone. God has already in "time past" chosen the day that, we as a human being
must die.
Actually, it's an
appointment, already established for us, individually. This doesn't mean that we shouldn't take care of ourselves, after all, if we
"live right," exercise a bit, don't drink too excess, take unnecessary chances, smoke, etc, we might just have it easier as we go through our
"Twilight years." It also behooves us to take care of our bodies as best we can and know how. If we see/feel something that's not normal, we ought to visit a Doctor and have it taken care of. That's
our responsibility to our own body. They say, "The moment we're born, is the moment we start to die."
We only have a few preacious years to live our lives, therefore, it's in our best interest to choose wisely how we live it. Obviously, we can't avoid that "Appointed day," it's going to catch up with us sooner or later. As human beings we're extremely fragile. I'll mention, but a few of examples of that; The Martial Artist and Actor, Bruce Lee was in tip-top physical shape and 32 years old, yet, it only took a
tiny pill to end his life. He happened to be allergic to that pill and it killed him. Another example would be, Jim Fixx, who was credited with helping start America's fitness revolution, popularizing the sport of running.
He died of a Heart attack while running, he was 52 years old at the time. Look at the actor, Kirk Douglas who played Spartacus in the movie by the same name. As of date, he's 101 years old and still with us. The Bible states in
Exodus 20:12 "Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee." Now, I'll admit this verse can have two different meanings, I'll only mention one of those meanings and leave the other one up to your own subjective opinion. The literal sense of the verse appears to be a "Commandment with a Promise." In other words, if we or they in the case of Israel give due respect to our Parents, God will allow us to live a longer life.
Compared to eternity, we as human beings are only given a few years of life on earth. It's up to us how we desire to live that life. Life is made up of
choices. 
And a while back I became more involved in our church and community. I think, watching my dad, that's the best way to approach it. Keep your mind active and your keyster out of the chair as much as you can. Or, in short, live. It's what life is made for, after all. Stay engaged and optimistic, and share all of it actively with God. That's the ticket to contentment.
