"It's not how long you live that counts," if you don't matter any more.  But if you really matter,  worthy to be, how long you live counts in promised years.
     During a recent conversation, a 40-years old person, said to me "I have lived longer than Jesus. I am 40 years old, so who am I to live longer than Jesus who died at the age of 33?" Apparently, this person disregarded the Scriptures: The first Commandment with promise, 
       "Honor your father and mother. so you
may live long in the land the Lord is  giving
you." (Exodus 20:12).
Another Scriptrue says:
      "The years of our life are seventy, or even
by reason eighty...." (Psalm 90:10):

     "And when he began his ministry Jesus
himself was about thirty years of age."
(Luke 3:23).
      During his ministry there were three Passovers observed annually on the Jewish Calendar that were recorded in John 2:1-13, John 3:4 and John 11:55 that led up to Jesus's Crucifixion, Ressurection, and Ascension into Heaven when he was 33 years old.
     Most of Jesus' disciples lived much longer than he did, except for Judas who betrayed him and died between 30-33 A.D) when he was about thirty-five years old. Peter lived some 41 years after the death of Jesus, John died in 100 A.D., and James died at the age of 94. The point is, most of Jesus's disciples lived thirty to fifty years longer than Jesus including those who were martyred. The Apostle Paul who was not a disciple of Jesus but was converted when he was in his 20s, soon after Jesus' death, wrote 14 of the 27 books of the New Testament, according to most Biblical scholars. When in his mid-30s to mid-50s he founded seveal churches in Asia Minor and Europe. He was beheaded in A.D., 64 or 65, when he was in his early sixties.
      It is clear that the disciples and Paul did not believe that they should die at the same young age as did Jesus.
     My philosophy of life regarding life and death is Bible-based. It says: If you are a person redeeming the times, i.e., making a positive difference at the age of 33, why not continue to make that difference at age 66 and contribute twice as much to humankind? Or, to live out your promised years of 70 or eighty and beyond? Why be selfish or, perhaps suicidal, and cease living when the world needs redemptive-anointed peope to do good and be a testimony for other people to see, and in seeing to recognize the value and beauty of living a long and producive life, that may have begun with you "honoring your mother and father?" And then honoring everyone, including yourself and glorifying God.
    In the Dispensation of the Patriarchs people lived much longer than they do in modern times. Adam died at the age of 930, Enoch, the father of Methuselah died at the age of 365 was translated, not seeing death, Noah died at the age of 950 and Methuselah, the oldest person who ever lived died at the age of 969.
    During the 1,000 years following the Flood there was a decline in the life span of humans. Abraham lived to be 175 years old and Moses lived 120 years until the time he became a father. David who lived to be 70 years old and his son Solomon, the wisest man who ever lived, died at the age of 80. David recorded the new God-ordained life span promise in Psalm 90:10:    
     The years of our life are seventy, or even eighty"
      Conceivably, humankind is on the threshold of a lengthening of the life span. In 2013 the oldest person to live in recorded modern history died at the age of 116 in Japan.
      Live all you can, every day you can, as long as you can. Do not imagine less than the promised years for your living. Should your demise come sooner than promised, and that may happen, let it not be because of any limit you placed on the length of years you self-determined to live or self-destructive behavior.

Copyright 201 by Uriah J. Fields.