The Reality of Aging and the Reality of Easter

This article will first appear on the De Pree Center website on April 7, 2026, two days after Easter Sunday. At this time, we will be in Eastertide, a 50-day season in the Christian year when we continue to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ and to reflect on the significance of his resurrection for our lives today. In this article, I’d like to share with you some thoughts about the reality of aging and how the reality of Easter can transform our thinking about and experience of getting older.

The Question of Flourishing

Six years ago, I wrote an article for the De Pree Center website called “We Need a Biblical Vision for Flourishing in the Third Third of Life.” This was the first time I went public with the idea that flourishing was possible and, indeed, desirable for older adults. Since then, I’ve written dozens of articles and given dozens of talks promoting third third flourishing. Moreover, the De Pree Center offers a video-based course called . . . you guessed it . . . Flourishing in the Third Third of Life.

Every now and then, somebody shares with me their lack of enthusiasm for the notion of third third flourishing. One pastor said to me, “Look, I’ve got a lot of seniors in my church, and they’re not flourishing. They’re suffering from many health problems. Many are struggling with dementia. They’ve lost friends and often also their spouse. It’s hard for me to see how they could flourish. Isn’t your flourishing in the third third stuff more wishful thinking than reality?”

I understand this pastor’s concern, especially given his experience caring for older people. It’s certainly true that many older adults are struggling with challenges common to aging. In fact, one of the most perplexing aspects of serving third thirders is their unparalleled diversity. People in this age bracket have all the “usual” diversities: gender, race, ethnicity, class, geography, education, etc. But they also experience many diversities that are distinctive to older adults. For example, a 60-year-old might suffer from early-onset dementia while most 60-year-olds are doing fine cognitively. Or a 95-year-old might have excellent cognitive ability even though 30% to 50% of people her age have dementia. You won’t find this kind of diversity among other age cohorts.

I have observed, however, that Christian organizations, such as churches and denominations, often assume that all older adults are more or less alike when it comes to flourishing, or not flourishing, to be more accurate. It is taken for granted that older people will decline and therefore need special care from churches, pastors, retirement communities, nursing homes, and memory care facilities. Such care, when needed, is essential and valuable. But should Christians limit our ministry with older adults in this way? Shouldn’t we also invest in helping our third third folk to flourish? Or does this effort reflect wishful thinking?

I have observed, however, that Christian organizations, such as churches and denominations, often assume that all older adults are more or less alike when it comes to flourishing, or not flourishing, to be more accurate.

Recent Research on the Possibility of Physical and Cognitive Improvement as We Age

The common assumption made by churches and pastors that “seniors” will necessarily experience physical and mental decline reflects the typical consensus of experts and non-experts alike. A recent report on research done by scholars at Yale University begins with this observation: “A widespread assumption exists among scientists, health care providers, and the public that later life is a time of inevitable and universal cognitive and physical decline.” Researchers Becca R. Levy and Martin D. Slade explain why they make this observation:

A review of scientific definitions concluded that “Aging is consensually described as a process of loss.” A global survey of nearly 40,000 people found that 65% of health care professionals and 80% of lay persons falsely believed that all older persons develop dementia. A nationally representative survey found that 77% of Americans aged 40 and older think that their cognition will decline.

Putting it simply, Levy, “an international expert on psychosocial determinants of aging health,” remarks, “Many people equate aging with an inevitable and continuous loss of physical and cognitive abilities.”

Levy and Slade explain that the assumption of universal decline “is likely due to considering older persons who improve to be exceptions, and the reliance on aging-health measures that do not allow for improvement.” Though what they point out here reflects their academic context, I would add that, at least for many of us, the assumption of decline in later life comes from personal experience. Almost all of us in the third third of life encounter various forms of decline in our own lives as well as the lives of others. That “almost all of us” becomes “every one of us” as we enter our 80s, 90s, and beyond.

Yet, according to research done by Levy and Slade, the assumption that aging necessarily leads to physical and mental decline for all people in all seasons of later life turns out not to be true. Their findings, published in the journal Geriatrics, are based on 11,000 participants in the national Health and Retirement Study. Using standard measures for physical and cognitive health, and following participants with a baseline age of 68 over the course of 12 years, the researchers found that “nearly half of adults aged 65 and older showed measurable improvement in cognitive function, physical function, or both, over time.” To be precise, Levey and Slade discovered that 45.15% of persons improved in cognitive and/or physical function during the 12 years of the longitudinal study. (31.88% improved in cognition and 28% improved in physical ability.)

That’s good news for those of us in the third third of life (and, actually, also for younger folks who will get here before they know it). But that’s not all the good news uncovered in the research by Levy and Slade. Yes, overall, 45.15% of people in the study experienced improvement. But “those who defied the negative age belief of decline” did even better on both physical and cognitive functioning. People with positive views of aging tended to experience less decline and more enhancement as they got older.

These outcomes are consistent with what Becca Levy has demonstrated in her acclaimed book, Breaking the Age Code: How Your Beliefs About Aging Determine How Long and Well You Live. Her research revealed that people who have a positive view of aging tend to live, on average, 7.5 years longer than those who have a negative view. The combination of individual negative age beliefs and cultural ageism shortens our lives. But if we resist these biases, positive age beliefs can lengthen our lives and enrich them, adding to our healthspan and joyspan in addition to our lifespan.

Of course, this research is based on the average experience of a large group of people. It doesn’t indicate that every older adult will live longer and better with positive age beliefs. I recently said goodbye to a friend who exemplified positive views of aging and seemed to be in excellent physical health. Tragically, he contracted a rare, aggressive form of cancer and died at 52 years of age. Levy and Slade can’t promise that adopting positive age beliefs will necessarily lengthen your life. But their research shows that it is likely to help. Plus, they encourage us not to make negative assumptions about aging that do not reflect reality.

Nevertheless, we will all experience declining health at some point in our life (unless our longevity is cut short by accidental causes). Moreover, eventually we will die. Prior to death, we will find that our bodies are getting weaker and more prone to injury or disease. And, yes, dementia is more common in our later years. PRB (Population Reference Bureau) reported in 2021 that 33% of adults 90 and older have dementia. (But notice, this means that 2/3s of people in this age bracket do not have dementia, contrary to common assumptions about the inevitability of cognitive decline for all people.)

Decline and Hope in Scripture

The Bible testifies to the reality of our mortality in both the Old and New Testaments. The writer of Ecclesiastes, for example, laments the physical decline of old age:

Honor and enjoy your Creator while you’re still young,
Before the years take their toll and your vigor wanes,
Before your vision dims and the world blurs
And the winter years keep you close to the fire.
In old age, your body no longer serves you so well.
Muscles slacken, grip weakens, joints stiffen.
The shades are pulled down on the world.
You can’t come and go at will. Things grind to a halt.
The hum of the household fades away.
You are wakened now by bird-song.
Eccles 12:1-4 (The Message)

In the New Testament letter called 2 Corinthians, the Apostle Paul describes our bodies as “clay jars” that experience all kinds of suffering (2 Cor 4:7-10). Our bodies, which Paul calls “our outer nature,” are “wasting away” (4:16).

Yet that’s not the whole story. In 1 Corinthians 15, Paul explains that in the future we will be raised to new life in Christ. On that day, our “perishable body” will put on “imperishability,” and our “mortal body” will put on “immortality” (1 Cor 15:53).

Why does Paul have such hope in this future transformation? Because of the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. “We know that the one who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus,” Paul writes, “and will bring us . . . into his presence” (4:13). This hope for the future is grounded on Christ’s death and resurrection (see 1 Cor 15:3-8). What we celebrate on Easter Sunday, and then during the season of Eastertide, is the foundation for our confident hope that, one day, we will experience the fullness of life in bodies that no longer suffer from decline, diminishment, and death.

Why does Paul have such hope in this future transformation? Because of the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.

Experiencing the Future Now

The resurrection of Jesus in the past foreshadows the resurrection of the future in which we will be raised to new, eternal life. Yet, according to 2 Corinthians, we can begin to experience that future even now, however incompletely.

Paul speaks of our human bodies as “clay jars,” nothing special or lasting. Yet in our “clay jars” we have divine “treasure” (4:17). God’s own light shines in our hearts so that we might know God’s glory through Jesus Christ (4:6). Thus, the pains and diminishments of this life constitute “a slight momentary affliction” that “is preparing us for an eternal weight of glory beyond all measure” (4:17). Yes, “our outer nature is wasting away” (4:16). That’s the bad news. The good news is that “our inner nature is being renewed day by day” (4:16). It is being renewed now, in this age.

Thus, several verses earlier in 2 Corinthians, Paul reveals that as we see “the glory of the Lord as reflected in a mirror,” we “are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another” (3:17). This present-tense transformation is a work of the Holy Spirit who dwells in and among us. To be sure, won’t experience the “eternal weight of glory” until the age to come (4:17; see also Rom 8:18-21). But because of the death and resurrection of Jesus, we can live as transformed people today. As Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 5:17-18, “So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new! All this is from God . . . .” Though we will not experience the complete renewal of creation—including ourselves—until the age to come, if we are “in Christ,” we can begin even now to taste the new creation. We can experience this newness wherever God is present on this earth, including ourselves.

Conclusion

Becca Levy and Martin Slade show that, contrary to the assumption that all older people will experience consistent decline both physically and mentally, many will actually improve in one or both ways. Perhaps this is one additional way in which the life of God’s future is with us in this present day.

Nevertheless, when we experience the inevitable losses that come with old age, when, in the language of Ecclesiastes, “the years take their toll,” and our “body no longer serves [us] well,” we do not need to “lose heart” (Eccles 12:1-4; 2 Cor 4:16). Why not? Because, on the one hand, we have confidence in the future when our bodies and minds will be transformed. The resurrection of Jesus gives us such hope. Plus, on the other hand, we do not lose heart because we can begin even now to enjoy the inner renewal that comes from the work of God’s Spirit in us. This can happen in all seasons of life, including the third third, when the wasting away of our outer nature is more prevalent and obvious, and we are more attuned to the inner work of the Spirit.