I have begun to understand paradigm as something similar to timeline and to a meme (group mind agreement).
As I observe my family and how they insist on ‘aging’ by doing age-appropriate behaviors to validate they are getting old, the wheels are in motion for decay and decline. A family member recently retired from her job of many years. She truly hated her job and the folks she worked with, but it paid fairly good money so she stayed til she could retire. She chose to stay many years after she knew she disliked the job and was anxious for the earliest retirement allowed.
She planned her retirement send-off by doing a starvation diet for 4 months to reach a slimmer appearance for her retirement photos and the 5-week trip she had planned with her husband. On the trip, she gained back most of the weight she had lost, but she looked like she wanted for that short time, then was back to her comfortable thicker self.
She joined a woodworking club with mostly men around 80 attending. Immediately having overdone the woodworking her thumb froze up so she had to get cortisone shots to get it working once more.
Needing to be careful with funds, she planned a one-week whirlwind adventure to India, which was a bit of a disaster. I did wonder how anyone might enjoy India in that short turnaround, turns out it really isn’t possible. She said about the trip, We saw the Taj Mahal, I hated the food, never again.
And her latest she joined a retirement center where she is now 62 years old and has fun playing bingo and making crafts for shut-ins.
But if God meant for us to live many many years, and say 62 is just the beginning of a much longer life, the paradigm set up in our culture to age and give up on living a productive contributing life would certainly guarantee aging and decay way too fast.
Aging is not real or true. Aging is not part of God’s plan. As we mature we have the potential of contributing in even greater and deeper impactful contributions. Who I am now is very different from who I was in my 20s. the wisdom and compassion, the understanding are so much greater than I had back then.
The thing I have boldly said for years now is “I do not believe in aging’. It shocks people at first and then they smile and say yeah, that’s great. They get a glimpse of what I am talking about, but because they don’t have any examples that are obvious about living a youthful vibrant life for 1500 years.
Honestly, the blueprint supports this but it appears the longest lives humans have lived is more like 800 years. Even so, no one in modern times has lived into those longer years. So then how are we expected to ‘believe’ in such a ginormous possibility?
And this gets back to something I discussed in last week’s newsletter. It is not about belief. It is not about faith. It is about knowing, and the truth. We will live into what we intend and imagine for ourselves and that is supported by the level of contribution and value we are committed to in our life.
Neutralize and clear out the cultural rules of aging and live as a free God-blessed human willing to serve and be a support to humanity.
