Shirley V. Hoogstra
Aging Faithfully provides a road map for trusting and growing in Christ through the changing seasons of our lives. Alice Fryling encourages her readers through Scripture, stories, and personal anecdotes. She provides dedicated space for reflection and meditation where readers can record their own thoughts in response to her writing prompts. It is a beautiful book; I recommend it.
Mark D. Roberts
Today, over ten thousand people in the United States will turn sixty-five. Very few are prepared for what lies ahead, both the incredible opportunities and the inevitable losses. Alice Fryling, in Aging Faithfully, is a wise and vulnerable guide who invites us to join her on a journey into deeper meaning and truer flourishing. This is an excellent book for people in the third third of life and for those who love them.
Michelle Van Loon
The apostle Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 13:12 that we can see eternity as though we’re looking at it through a dim mirror. The final movement of our lives carries with it the opportunity to move closer to that mirror, where the light and shadows of old age present to us an image of God, ourselves, and others that we’ve not been able to fully behold at earlier stages of our lives. Alice Fryling’s gentle, honest writing illumines the losses, questions, fears, and longings we carry with us into the aging process. Aging Faithfully is a trustworthy guide to the light and shadows of our final stage of life on earth with honesty, offering us a gracious and hopeful sense of the welcome that awaits us on the other side of that dim mirror.
Michael Card
As we move into our sixties and beyond, we experience a profound silence. The voices of our mentors are gone. Those from whom we received direction and encouragement are silenced at a time when we need their help the most. Aging Faithfully speaks directly into that silent space. For those of us who long to live faithfully into maturity, this book provides direction, new possibilities, and needed encouragement. These are meant to be the most fruitful years of our lives!
Ruth Haley Barton
This lovely book is full of wisdom, encouragement, and hard-won insights from one who knows whereof she speaks. And questions . . . the questions alone are worth the price of the book, helping us enter the depths of what God has for us in this stage of our human journey! The bad news is that we all need this book or will need it eventually. The good news is that with Alice as our companion, we can experience aging as a season rich with holy invitations from God leading to immense satisfaction, if we can stop resisting those invitations and just say yes!
Leslie Leyland Fields
In this age-denying culture, thank God for Alice Fryling! She is a wise, warm, honest, and companionable guide who shows us that the “liminal space” of aging can bring unexpected growth and freedoms. Page by page, she gently corrects our nearsightedness, replacing it with beautiful, biblical ways to become “more fruitful” even as we become “less productive.” As the years pass, I know I will reach for this book again and again.
Stephen A. Macchia
Age alone does not equal spiritual, emotional, or relational maturity. Our world is filled with adolescent, false-self, immature older adults who need the biblical wisdom, relational maturity, and graced fortitude of Alice Fryling. By prayerfully embracing our holy losses, hidden in the cross of Christ, we are ready to receive our holy invitations, advancing the Kingdom of heaven. The end-of-chapter reflections and the rich appendices are icing on this delicious piece of literary cake. Thank you, Alice!
Dee Brestin
Alice Fryling has uncovered the secrets as to why some grow older with grace and joy while others are defeated by the inevitable losses. Her wisdom brings hope and laughter! She quotes Psalm 92, which tells how the righteous can still bear fruit in old age and be “always green and full of sap”! This isn’t just a book for the elderly; it’s also for those who love them.
Richard J. Foster
I thank God for Aging Faithfully. It is a book for you regardless of your age, for the truth of the matter is, we are all aging . . . every single one of us. Alice Fryling lovingly leads us through the ups and downs, the losses and the treasures we experience in the interior chambers of our soul throughout our aging. I recommend Alice Fryling as a reliable and faithful guide through this multifaceted adventure of aging.
Joe Bernardy
In Aging Faithfully: The Holy Invitation of Growing Older, Alice Fryling takes the reader on a journey from a frank look at the losses that accompany aging to hope and purpose in our later years. The processing questions at the end of each chapter will be valuable to anyone as they anticipate or experience the losses and joys of those years.
Peggy Wehmeyer
Getting older is one of life’s journeys few of us sign up for but all of us must take. In Aging Faithfully, Alice Fryling draws from her decades of experience as a wise spiritual guide to equip us for this holy adventure. Reading Alice’s book brought me closer to the truth that God has given me everything I need to age not only faithfully but joyfully.
