Abundant Life

March 2023

Dear Friends

When the state pension was first paid out in 1909 (to those aged 70 or over) life expectancy in England was just 52 years!  By the time I was born in 1963 it had reached 71 years, driven steadily upward by improving healthcare and prosperity.  By 2019 life expectancy was up to 82 years although increases had slowed.  Since 2019, of course, it has gone back down, to about 81 years.  On average, a whole year has been taken off our lives.

Those are just averages - there are many individuals who seem to have lost much more than one year of their life, who were taken from us ‘far too soon’.  Expectations of a long life have risen and we can feel that someone who doesn’t reach at least 80 has been cheated.

The Bible turns this on its head: life is not a right that is cruelly taken from us but the gift of a loving God.  Every single day is a fresh gift from our Creator to be lived for him and not something we have earned and which is owed to us.  We can no more complain about this undeserved gift coming to an end than we could complain that the box of chocolates freely given to us by a friend should have been bigger.

In the Old Testament, long life is God’s great blessing and gift to those who trust in him.  In the New Testament, God upgrades his gift, from long life to eternal life, with most of that gift lying on the other side of death.  In words that are read at the start of the Christian funeral service Jesus declared, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die.”  (John 11:25-26)

That’s why, when the apostle Paul knew that he was going to be martyred for his faith, he was not in despair.  He knew that as he departed this life he would receive the better gift of an abundant life with Jesus forever.  Paul’s life until then had only been chapter one of the whole book.

Christians down to the present day have shared that same confidence: “to live is Christ and to die is gain” (Philippians 1:21)

Sincerely

Graham Burrows