Apparently, a lady who currently lives in Laval, Quebec has reached the ripe old age of 120.
​Authorities are still trying to verify her age to see if she truly is the oldest person living. In any case, the ladies’ story got me thinking about longevity. I was especially interested to learn some of the secrets to her long life. According to the story, which I read on CBC.CA, the lady laughs a lot. Laughing is usually not a problem for me. I just need to master the fine art of laughing at the right time, and stopping once I’ve started.

She also “constantly prays.” I can’t say I’m really doing well with this one. I guess it depends on what is meant by “constantly.” One meaning of the word is “persistence.” Jesus told a story about this type of prayer, featuring a woman seeking justice from a judge (see Luke 18:1-8). Luke tells us the meaning of the parable in the very first verse. It was that “men always ought to pray and not lose heart.” In other words, they should pray constantly.

Anyway, back to our 120 year old Haitian woman (she moved from Haiti to Quebec a few years ago). The story also said that the woman doesn’t watch the news because it “stresses her out.” Who doesn’t get stressed out by the news? Instead, the woman watches cartoons on TV. Sounds like a plan to me.

Up to this point I was completely on board with everything this lady did. But then it got downright ridiculous. The story reported that she no longer eats junk food. She wouldn’t even nibble on her own birthday cake. Upon reading this I was completely mortified. Abstinence from junk food is really not my cup of tea. I depend heavily on sugar for energy. The occasional dose of caffeine also helps. I know these are not the healthiest sources of energy but my Christian faith (and as far as I know our current legal system) does not permit me to do drugs.

Anyway, I’ve come to the conclusion that there’s no possible way to guarantee a long life on this side of the sod. It’s good to trim the fat but as I said in my book, skinny people die every day. Of course, the only way to achieve an exceptionally long life is to accept Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Saviour. You can’t get much longer than eternity.

Martin Luther King spoke about longevity the night before he was assassinated. He said, “like anybody I would like to live a long life, longevity has its place. But I’m not concerned about that now, I just want to do God’s will. And He has allowed me to go up to the mountain and I’ve looked over and I’ve seen the promised land. I may not get there with you but I want you to know tonight that we as a people will get to the promised land. So I’m happy tonight, I’m not worried about anything, I’m not fearing any man, mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord.”

What if we could all say with Luther King, “I just want to do God’s will.” Whether our days on earth are many or few, our main business in life is to do the will of the Father. It’s the only path to the promised land. No doubt, 120 years sounds like a long time but against the backdrop of eternity it’s like the morning fog that appears for little time and then vanishes away (see James 4:14).

The Bible records a time when God shortened the days of humanity. Previously, they were sticking around for hundreds of years, one person almost lived to be 1,000 (and our government thinks we have a problem with an aging population). But then God shortened the life span to……. yes, you guessed it, 120 years. Go figure. (See Genesis 6:3)

To read the fully story about the 120 year-old woman on cbc.ca CLICK HERE

To watch the section of Martin Luther King’s speech as quoted above CLICK HERE

To see more blogs, videos, quotes, jokes and other stuff CLICK HERE