Living with Purpose in a Worn-Out Body: Spiritual Encouragement for Older Adults

By Missy Buchanan

"Why am I still here? Why is God letting me suffer so long?"

Frailty, dependence, and constant pain can lead to a spiritual hopelessness in this increasingly "gray" society. While we're inspired by occasional news about an extraordinary centenarian who swims every day, it's more common to grieve and wonder as loved ones grow feeble.

With compassion and honesty, Buchanan gives voice to those living an assisted life.

Through the painful-to-consider feelings of loss, self pity, resignation, and loneliness, she leads caregivers and those in their care to see that living with purpose in old age is an extension of the challenges lived all along:

• learning to offer one's will to God's
• trusting God's grace
• continuing to respond with the joy and fortitude of faith

Buchanan fosters empathy for and expresses the deepest concerns of the frail elderly without tap-dancing around the tough issues. 42 short, comforting devotionals offer much-needed spiritual encouragement to the once-vibrant who now cope with daily limitations and failing health.

The devotions are written in the first person, allowing readers to speak directly to God about the pills they take, the walkers they need to be mobile, and the ambulances that take away their friends. Supporting scriptures from the New Testament and Psalms are included with each meditation. Buchanan writes to the experiences of lifelong Christians as well as elderly non-believers who are thinking anew about God.

"Though we may experience fear and discouragement, this book invites us to remember that God's energies are at work silently but powerfully throughout all of life," writes one reviewer.

Living with Purpose in a Worn-out Body is elder-friendly, offering large-print text and wide margins for easier handling by arthritic hands.

Help someone you love find a reason and way to live out God's purpose in spite of their limitations.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Upper Room Books
• Release date: May 1, 2008
• ISBN: 9780835812030

Missy Buchanan

An advocate for older adults, Missy Buchanan is an internationally recognized author and speaker on issues of aging faithfully, drawing from her personal experience as a caregiver for her own aging parents. She has appeared twice on Good Morning America with coanchor Robin Roberts, who describes Missy as “the rare soul that understands, truly understands, older adults: their fears, struggles, and hopes.” With thousands of followers on Twitter and Facebook, Missy provides daily insight and encouragement for the journey of aging. Her first book, Living with Purpose in a Worn-Out Body, remains a top seller in addition to seven other titles that are often found on bedside tables in senior living communities and in church libraries. Her newest book, Beach Calling: A Devotional Journal for the Middle Years and Beyond, will release in summer 2019. Missy has been a speaker at hundreds of churches, senior living communities, and aging conferences including the National Boomer Ministry Conference, the Festival of Wisdom and Grace, and the Presbyterian Older Adult Ministries Network National Conference. She has delivered messages about caregiving and faithful aging to churches of many denominations, including the largest United Methodist Church in the United States—Church of the Resurrection in Leawood, Kansas. She has also been a featured speaker aboard cruises for Educational Opportunities Tours. A resident of Rockwall, Texas, Missy enjoys regular visits to senior living communities in her area to see her older adult friends, being a greeter at her local church, and basking in her favorite role of all: grandmother.

Book preview

Slow motion

Mine is a slow-motion world where everything moves like thick corn syrup.

It’s a deliberate pace that is both slow and slower.

Residents with walkers inch their way to lunch.

Folks speak in measured stride.

Others lean close to hear every word.

The world says, Hurry up. Do it faster. Faster!

But here at the center, life crawls in turtle time.

I calculate each daily task in my mind.

How long will it take to get from here to there?

Ten minutes to the dining room some fifty yards away.

A little longer to the laundry room. Longer still if I’m pushing the cart.

Even mindless tasks take more time and energy.

Brushing teeth. Fastening clothes. Cutting food.

But there are small wonders to be found in unhurried life.

I get to see the first bloom on the geranium outside room 107.

I take in the scent of newly mown grass.

I stop and chat with the maintenance man, basking in his latest fishing tale.

O God, no matter how slowly life unfolds, your hand is moving in the circumstances of my day.

Thanks be to you, I am moving forward still.

Glory be!

Psalm 31:14-15

I trust in you, O Lord;

I say, You are my God.

My times are in your