Finishing Our Course with Joy [eBook]

Guidance from God for Engaging with Our Aging

Thinning hair, failing eyesight, and arthritic hands reveal an inescapable truth: we’re only getting older.

But that doesn’t mean we should simply sit back and take it easy. In Finishing Our Course with Joy, renowned theologian and author J. I. Packer challenges us to embrace old age as an opportunity for continued learning, careful planning, and heartfelt discipleship. Packer’s pastoral words and personal stories encourage us to press on toward the upward call of God with endurance and grace—that we might continue to glorify God in our aging and finish our lives with joy.

J. I. Packer (DPhil, Oxford University) serves as the Board of Governors’ Professor of Theology at Regent College. He is the author of numerous books, including Weakness Is the Way and the classic best-seller Knowing God. Packer also served as general editor for the English Standard Version Bible and as theological editor for the ESV Study Bible.

“I wish I had thought more about growing older when I was younger. If I had, perhaps I wouldn’t need wisdom from J. I. Packer. But I didn’t, and therefore I do! And what wonderful wisdom it is, the sort that challenges us, redirects our energy, and equips us with biblical truth to face our latter years. I’m at that stage in life where ‘engaging’ with my ‘aging’ has become increasingly more urgent. And I can’t think of anyone who can provide more helpful and encouraging insight than J. I. Packer. Don’t wait until you’re sixty or seventy to read this book. Start now and finish well.”
—Sam Storms, Lead Pastor for Preaching and Vision, Bridgeway Church, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma

“Experts say that the proportion of the elderly population in the United States will grow by 80 percent in the decades to come. It is more important than ever to have a biblical mind about how we spend our latter years for God’s glory. We want to finish well (2 Tim. 4:7). And good pastors care to prepare their people to do precisely this. Finishing Our Course with Joy comes as wise, true, timely, and edifying biblical reflection and pastoral counsel on this significant subject. Dr. Packer’s book speaks to senior adults, those who love and care for them, those who will become them, and those who pastor them. As one who has had the privilege of knowing J. I. Packer since my teen years, reading these words—written from his own personal experience, communion with God, and knowledge of the Word—is poignant for me, to say the least. But that only makes the truth go in deeper. And that is good.”
—J. Ligon Duncan III, Chancellor and John E. Richards Professor of Systematic and Historical Theology, Reformed Theological Seminary, Jackson, Mississippi

“J. I. Packer is his usual wise self as he gives his counsel herein for older people to pursue their aging with ‘zeal’! He urges us to serve God and his church however we can while we can. This is devout and inspiring motivation.”
—Marva J. Dawn, theologian; speaker; author, Being Well When We’re Ill; In the Beginning GOD; and Talking the Walk