Stop Trying to Live Forever (So That You Can)
On January 1 Netflix released the documentary Don’t Die: The Man Who Wants to Live Forever featuring Bryan Johnson, a billionaire who has turned life longevity into a high stakes sport. At age 47, Johnson has proclaimed himself the healthiest man in the world. And he has the data to prove it.
But how exactly does he plan to live forever?
In the short run, he’ll keep taking 100+ pills per day while ruthlessly monitoring his biometrics and tracking his intake of personally-sourced olive oil to the calorie. But even this does not an immortal make. Johnson recently told Bari Weiss that existence itself will soon need to be redefined as humans continue their evolution, which he means to help along through the elimination of “death behaviors.” In fact, Johnson promises that “Don’t Die” will be the world’s most influential ideology by 2027.
So…the details are cloudy. But do you want to call him crazy?
First, be completely honest. If someone observed your daily pursuits, would they sense any delusions of incorruptibility? Whether or not we accept it, the path of mental, emotional, and spiritual health consistently leads to this touchstone of sanity: we will certainly die. And many of us vacillate between denying the reality of death (and other, preliminary limits) and despairing that it can’t be overcome. In other words, though our biometrics are different than Johnson’s, our denial of death might be awfully similar.
Go ahead and drink more water, eat vegetables for breakfast, work out for an hour a day, and go to bed at 8pm if you want to—Johnson has great bits of advice! But his eschatology is darkly misguided. Trying not to die is not the same as living. In fact, it is closer to the opposite. And our calling is never to stay alive at all costs, but to steward life faithfully and then surrender it when it is time.
So what is life, if it’s not simply the avoidance of death? It is more than I can tell you. But here is a start…
Christ is life. Every human life is a composite of dust and the breath of God. It’s through Christ that we were made (Col. 1:16) and to Christ that we may return to be remade (Rev. 21:5). True life consists in communion with him. This is why Christ tells us that he is “the life” (John 11:25; 14:6).
Life is a gift. Life is held with an open hand and offered back to God every moment. Just as our lungs cannot hold onto our breath but must release it to receive a new gift, life is a constant call-and-response, a communion in which we offer our lives every moment and are revived the next. That’s right—breathing techniques weren’t just thought up by shrinks to fill DBT manuals! Breathing is a continuous parable enacted by every living creature to prompt our return to sanity:
We offer our life (exhale) … we receive it back (inhale)
We offer our life … we receive it back …
We offer our life … we receive it back …
Whoever loses his life for my sake … will find it …
In Christ, even death is just another exhale, followed by an uninterrupted inhale of Life. And so, thirdly:
Life increases as it is offered back. Christ is concerned that we not gain the world at the cost of our soul (Mt. 16:26). That’s why He invites us to surrender the things we cannot possibly hold onto as an expression of loving reliance, trusting that we will receive back all that He is pleased to provide as we follow Him.
Friends, this is life. “Life” found elsewhere is a counterfeit — something truly different than what we think we are getting — and leads to a multitude of spiritual illnesses. Let’s stop trying to avoid death at all costs, and get our lives back.
