We owe a great deal to scientific researchers as they have greatly improved the quality and convienience of our lives and continue to do so. However, I recently learned of the existence of a so-called Life Extension Science. Life extensionists are researchers who claim they can achieve longer lives for themselves and for others.
This life extension industry has no doubt become a billion dollar a year business, and the researchers have become extremely wealthy by developing and selling their life extension vitamins and anti-aging supplements to a vanity stricken world. There are many people who are afraid of the dire effects that come along with aging. I once heard of an educated lady who cried long tears when she turned thirty.
It is quite understandable that people want to remain healthy and still look good in their latter years and these products may temporarily help us look and feel better to some degree,(I know I won't hesitate to use anti-aging cream the morning after the first wrinkle appears), but expanding one's life is quite a different matter.
When we study God's Word we quickly realize how helpless we really are. Scripture tells us that we can't make a single strand of hair black or extend our lives even for an hour. (To think of the countless hours we waste). There is actually a case in the Bible where God extended a dying king's life for fifteen years, that is, after he had done a lot weeping and begging Yes, even royalty is afraid of old age and death. But it was the Creator Who extended this man's life, not science.or any man-made concoction.
Physicians use drugs as directed by the pharmaceutical companies. These man-made medications often kill instead of heal. The total number of deaths in the USA caused by adverse effects of conventional medicine is 783,936 per year. Some call to it: death by medicine. Information on the Internet is awesome,
isn't it?
A wise king once pleaded with God:"Teach us to number our days,that we may gain a heart of wisdom" People were a lot wiser spiritually 2,000 years ago than they are today.
My daugher once had a very close friend. They danced together for many years. They would practice dancing four times a week, six (almost non-stop) hours on Saturdays.They were both pictures of perfect health at the time; not an ounce of fat on their slim bodies.On more than one occasion I picked up this friend to take her to the beach with my daughter .Graduation was approachi ng and as they sat in the backseat of my car, I would overhear them talking enthusiastically about their chosen careers, the colleges they were going to attend, and their future plans
They both graduated the same year and left the island at about the same time, my daughter to the USA and her friend to Canada. Ofen when my daughter called home she would tell her mother how strange it was that she hadn't heard from her best friend, who had faithfully promised to send her phone number and email address so they could stay in touch. We later learned to our horror, that her friend had caught a deadly virus shortly after arriving at her destination and was dead within a month.
So, here are some hard questions: Why does a very healthy and intelligent girl-who had such enthusiastic plans for her future die one day before her 18th. birthday? Why does a 12-year-old girl die tragically? Why do some babies die in their mother's womb or a few hours after they come into the world, never having seen the sun, God's blue sky, the vast,turquoise ocean that surrounds our beautiful island and not even a glimse of the faces of their loving parents? Why are some babies born blind or autistic or with some other disabling and life-shortening disease that will make them suffer throughout their brief lives and then take them to an early grave? Why are so many children born in a poverty-stricken country where there is no hope, while others are born to well to do parents in developed countries?
When you take time out to ponder these questions, you inevitably come to the realization that nothing in life is left to chance. Everything in life, be it;country of birth, success or failure, health or sickness, prosperity or poverty, a short or a long life, all aspects of our lives solely depend on God's mercy and His purpose for us individually.
I firmly believe that before we even come into this world, God has already determined the course and quality of our lives and the number of days we will spend on His earth.Fortunately, nobody knows that number. No life extension or medical science or doctor is going to change that.
We can and certainly should make plans and set goals for our lives, but let's also bear in mind that: In his heart a man plans his course but the Lord determines his steps. God has predetermined our destiny and He did so before we even enter His world. Some day we will have the answers.
Clive Hodge
