Our Conversation on Aging with Jen Wilkin

Recently on the Fit for His Glory Podcast, we had the opportunity to sit down with Jen Wilkin and talk about her new book, Dust to Dust. The entire conversation centered around aging, and honestly, it felt like one of those topics that everyone is talking about but almost no one is talking about through a biblical lens.

Our culture has a lot to say about aging. Everywhere we turn we're being told how to prevent it, slow it down, reverse it, hide it, or fight against it. There are entire industries built around convincing us that getting older is something to fear. And if we're honest, many of us have bought into that mindset more than we'd like to admit.

As women, we often feel the tension of watching our bodies change. We notice the gray hairs, the wrinkles, the recovery time after workouts, the shifts in hormones, and the ways our bodies don't respond like they once did. It's easy to begin believing that the younger version of ourselves was somehow the better version of ourselves. But one of the things Jen challenged throughout our conversation is whether that belief is actually rooted in Scripture or whether it's simply the result of years of cultural messaging.

One of the most powerful things she said was that our culture treats aging as a diminishment, while Scripture often presents it as a gift. That immediately made us pause because I don't know many women who naturally think of aging as a gift. Most of us spend far more time trying to avoid it than embracing it. Yet throughout Scripture we see gray hair described as a crown of glory, wisdom associated with age, and older men and women entrusted with teaching and discipling the next generation. The Bible doesn't describe aging as becoming less valuable. In many ways, it describes aging as becoming more useful.

I think that's especially important for Christian women to hear because we've been discipled by a culture that constantly ties our value to our appearance. The beauty standard is always changing. The goalposts keep moving. One decade it's one body type. The next decade it's another. One year we're told to lose weight. The next year we're told to gain curves. There is always another product, another procedure, another promise that claims to finally make us enough.

The problem is that enough never comes.

I think many of us have experienced that in fitness. We tell ourselves we'll finally be happy when we hit a certain weight, fit into a certain size, or achieve a certain goal. Then we get there and realize the target has moved again. The issue was never the number on the scale. The issue was that we were looking to something temporary to provide something only God can give.

That's why I loved where our conversation shifted toward stewardship. At Fit for His Glory, we talk all the time about caring for our bodies. We believe health matters. We believe movement matters. We believe nutrition matters. We believe sleep, strength, and healthy habits matter. But why they matter is incredibly important.

Our bodies are not projects to perfect. They are gifts to steward.

Jen shared that our bodies were created to be useful, not merely decorative. That doesn't mean beauty isn't a gift. It doesn't mean it's wrong to care about how we look. But it does mean the ultimate purpose of our bodies is much bigger than maintaining a certain appearance. God gave us bodies so that we could love Him, serve others, raise families, encourage the church, and glorify Him with the years we've been given.

When we view our bodies through that lens, aging begins to look different. Instead of asking, "How do I stay young?" we start asking, "How can I remain faithful?" Instead of obsessing over preserving youth, we focus on stewarding the season God has us in right now.

One of the most emotional moments in the conversation came when Caroline shared about losing her dad unexpectedly this year. He was only 65 years old. Healthy. Active. Someone who seemed far too young to be gone. And it was a powerful reminder that no amount of healthy habits can ultimately guarantee tomorrow.

Health matters deeply, but health makes a terrible savior.

You can do all the right things and still get sick. You can do all the right things and still experience suffering. You can do all the right things and still die. That's not meant to discourage us from pursuing health. It's meant to remind us that our hope was never supposed to rest in our health in the first place.

Toward the end of our conversation, Jen shared something that has stayed with me ever since. She talked about gray hair and reminded us that for most of human history, people didn't live long enough to have it. Suddenly those gray hairs don't seem quite as frustrating. They become evidence of years that someone else never got.

Every wrinkle represents days lived.

Every birthday represents another year of grace.

Every gray hair is a reminder that growing older is a privilege not everyone receives.

Maybe that's the perspective shift many of us need. Aging isn't the enemy. Death is.

And because of Christ, even death doesn't get the final word.

So the next time I notice another gray hair, I'm trying to remember what Jen said. Not everyone gets this gift. And if God is kind enough to give me another year, another season, another birthday, I want to receive it with gratitude. Because every year I live is another opportunity to know Him more, serve Him more faithfully, and become more like Him.

That's a far better story than the one our culture is trying to sell us.

Check out the full episode here:

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