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Good Morning,

I’m only 53 years old. But one hundred years ago this would have been considered a good enough innings already. Back in 1919 average life expectancy for men was fifty-two and a half. Since then it has risen every decade to a high of 79 years for men and 82 for women. New data now shows that this seemingly inexorable rise in life expectancy has dramatically slowed in England since 2010. Enough for a leading health expert to suggest that we might have found the natural peak of our lifespan.

The idea that eighty years is an acceptable life span isn’t as modern as all that. It was the Psalmist who wrote ‘The years of our life are three score and ten, or fourscore if we have the strength,’ and that was two and half thousand years ago. Back then a long life was considered a sign of blessing but it would have been at least as desirable, if not as likely, as it is today.

In my 20’s, when I had the youthful feeling that I’d live forever, I had a friend who was convinced he’d not live beyond 30. It was partly a pose, inspired by rock and roll: ‘I hope I die before I get old;’ ‘it’s better to burn than fade away’; and today, like the writers of those lyrics, he’s made it to middle age and is telling himself that 50 is the new 30.

But these rebel yells are on to something. They recognise that longevity may not be life’s primary objective. There’s an awareness that the span of years might (as that same Psalm says in its very next line) be ‘full of trouble and sorrow.’ Expectancy of a long life may offer a theoretical target but it’s not an existentially satisfying one.

Life is full of checks to false expectations. And of course death provides the great check of all. As it says in the New Testament letter of James: ‘we are not promised tomorrow.’ If you visit Westminster Abbey you’ll find the gravestones of Dickens (died at 58), Newton (84) and Darwin (73) among and plaques of the unnamed poor. You’ll also find the grave of Sir Walter Raleigh who wrote the lines: ‘Death has drawn together all the far-fetched greatness, all the pride, cruelty and ambition of man and covered it all over with these two words: ‘here lies.’

If life is so short, fragile and hard, how much should we reasonably expect from it? It’s striking that when Jesus talked about life he said nothing of its quantity; but a great deal about its quality. He challenged people to expect more; to look deeper and wider - longer than longevity as it were - for what he called an abundant life. A life that has an eternal reach but that starts now.

And all this before he died at the age of 33.

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