Posts tagged ‘Associated Press’
U.S. Life Expectancy Slides
Credit: Nazrul Islam Ripon
King Solomon makes a sobering statement in the book of Ecclesiastes:
The wise have eyes in their heads, while the fool walks in the darkness; but I came to realize that the same fate overtakes them both. (Ecclesiastes 2:14)
Solomon knows that, for all humanity’s wisdom, no one is clever enough to outrun, outsmart, or outmaneuver fate. The wise, just like the foolish, share the same fate of death. As Solomon puts it later in Ecclesiastes: “Death is the destiny of everyone” (Ecclesiastes 7:2).
I was reminded of this truth when I came across this headline: “With death rate up, U.S. life expectancy is likely down again.” Mike Stobbe, writing for the Associated Press, explains:
The U.S. death rate rose last year, and 2017 likely will mark the third straight year of decline in American life expectancy, according to preliminary data.
Death rates rose for Alzheimer’s disease, diabetes, flu and pneumonia, and three other leading causes of death, according to numbers posted online Wednesday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The progress we have made in fighting disease has been nothing short of astonishing. From advances in treating HIV to new drugs for ALS and MS to promising gene therapies for certain types of cancer, we are making extraordinary strides in protecting and extending life. But disease still haunts us and hurts us. What’s more, it’s not just disease that threatens us existentially, it’s we who threaten ourselves personally. As Mr. Stobbe notes:
Full-year data is not yet available for drug overdoses, suicides or firearm deaths. But partial-year statistics in those categories showed continuing increases.
The indicators from late-2017 looked grim on both drug overdose, where U.S. deaths skyrocketed 21 percent, and on firearm deaths, two-thirds of which are suicides. As it turns out, we are often our own worst enemies.
I sometimes wonder if our societally sliding life expectancy doesn’t have an inverse relationship to our personally skyrocketing life expectations. Far too many people have unattainable, unsustainable, and, frankly, misplaced expectations for life. Some people expect riches. Others expect pleasure. Others expect ease. Still others expect perfection. When these expectations are not met, sometimes, some people slide into destructive habits, patterns, addictions, and even moments of despair. And a life expectancy craters because life expectations are not met.
In Ecclesiastes, Solomon notes that even if a person recklessly indulges every desire, his life expectations will remain impoverished. Life expectations based in things like riches, pleasure, ease, and perfection can never satisfy. This is why we must place our deepest expectations not with our individual longings, but in our transcendent Lord. For when we do, even if our life expectancy is cut short, our eternity remains secure.
The nation’s average life expectancy may continue to slide. But our lives do not have to fall forever. Because of the One who was lifted up on a cross, we can be lifted up from the grave. And that’s not an expectation that can be dashed. That’s real hope that lasts.
Making the Most of Marriage
At the end of each year, major news outlets publish their lists of the year’s top news stories. For 2011, Osama bin Laden’s death and Japan’s earthquake and subsequent tsunami were the top news stories according to the Associate Press. [1] Interestingly, it is not only mainstream news outlets that provide such lists. Religious news outlets, editorial writers, and bloggers are now following suit. I have seen lists of 2011’s top religious news stories in Christianity Today [2] and the The Huffington Post. [3] But it is a top ten news story in the Gospel Coalition blog that really caught my attention. It is titled “Marriages Need Help.” Collin Hansen, who penned this list, explains why this story made his top ten:
This story could have appeared in my 2010 list, and it might warrant an encore in 2012. Same-sex “marriage,” legalized by New York state in 2011, continues to grab the headlines. But here’s the bigger story: a growing number of Westerners have abandoned the institution altogether. The Pew Research Center recently revealed that a record low number of Americans – 51 percent – are married. The rate dropped 5 percent in just one year, between 2009 and 2010. [4]
If that statistic from the Pew Research Center does not make your jaw drop, it should. At an increasingly rapid rate, Americans are either (A) getting divorced, (B) never getting married in the first place, or (C) living in lifeless, loveless, romance-less marriages. It is worth noting that the statistics from Pew do not account for those in category C.
In his book, The Meaning of Marriage, [5] Pastor Tim Keller distinguishes between two kinds of relationships: consumer relationships and covenantal relationships. A consumer relationship lasts only as long as the needs of the partners in the relationship are being met satisfactorily. As soon as needs stop being met, the relationship falls apart. These kinds of relationships, then, are inherently self-centered, for they exist merely to gratify their participants. Covenantal relationships, on the other hand, are binding relationships in which the good of the relationship trumps the preferences and immediate needs of the individuals in the relationship. These relationships are based on a continual commitment rather than on a consumer-fueled contentment.
Part of the reason marriage is on such a sharp decline, Keller argues, is because we have taken what should be the covenantal relationship of marriage and have turned it into a consumer relationship. In other words, many marriages last only as long as the partners are having their needs met. As soon as a marriage hits a rough patch, or as soon as one spouse or both spouses feel as though their desires are going unaddressed, divorce all too quickly ensues. Indeed, this is why many people don’t get married in the first place. They don’t want to bother with the kind of covenantal commitment that marriage inevitably brings – at least from a legal standpoint, if nothing else. As a pastor, I have heard more times than I care to remember, “We don’t need a piece of paper [i.e., a marriage license] to tell us that we love each other. We don’t need to get married!” This kind of statement breaks my heart. For what a person who makes such a statement is really saying is, “I don’t love this person quite enough to make things as permanent as a marriage makes things! I don’t love this person quite enough to enter into a covenant with them!”
Jesus’ words about a Christian’s life apply equally as well to a spouse’s life: “Whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for Me will find it” (Matthew 16:25). Self-sacrifice is the way of the gospel…and the way of marriage. Marriage is not about getting your needs met. It is about sacrificing selflessly for the sake of your spouse. And yet, through such willing sacrifice, Jesus promises that your needs will indeed be met, even if ever so mysteriously. You will “find your life,” Jesus says. But take heed of Jesus’ warning: If you enter a relationship with a consumer mentality, looking only to your own needs, wants, and desires – if you try to “save your life” – you will only wind up sorely and sadly empty. You will only wind up losing your life. Fulfillment in marriage – and in life – begins with emptying yourself in service.
So if you are married, but times are tough, in almost every instance, except those instances in which a family member is in danger, the road to recovery begins with serving your spouse. If you are not married, but you’d like to be, selfless service is the path to your future spouse’s heart. This is the help our marriages need.
[1] David Crary, “The top ten news stories of 2011,” The Associated Press (12.30.11).
[2] “Top 10 News Stories of 2011,” Christianity Today (12.28.11).
[3] Paul Brandies Raushenbush, “Religion Stories of 2011: The Top 11,” The Huffington Post (12.8.11).
[4] Collin Hansen, “My Top 10 Theology Stories of 2011,” The Gospel Coalition (12.28.11).
[5] See chapter 3, “The Essence of Marriage” in Tim Keller with Katy Keller, The Meaning of Marriage (New York: Dutton, 2011).
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