Word from Wiese

Are You Peaking?

Are You Peaking?

Word From Wiese

October 29, 2025

My dentist tells me I need two crowns.

For the first time in decades, due to a troublesome back, I didn’t run in an organized race last year.

Am I over the hill?

Amid such discouraging health realities, I was heartened to read a report from The Times (United Kingdom) which evaluated our aging from another angle. Researchers at the University of Western Australia analyzed decades of psychological data to develop what they call a “cognitive-personality functioning index,” charting how intellect, judgment, and personality evolve across life. They concluded that overall cognitive functioning reaches its high point between ages 55 and 60.

What?! Is there hope? Could there be a chance that while some of my body parts require their 100,000 mile tune-ups, in some ways my 58 years of life are ready to peak?

I’m realistic on the report’s boundaries.

For instance, I do not debate its conclusion that fluid intelligence–that’s the kind you need to succeed on Jeopardy!, involving recall, reasoning, and processing speed–peaks in the early 20s, and gradually declines thereafter. (I often know the answers, but can’t move them from my brain to my lips in time!) But “crystallized intelligence,” or accumulated knowledge and experience, continues to grow. Traits such as conscientiousness and emotional stability also mature through most of adulthood, with moral reasoning and financial literacy, peaking later still. Hey, hey!

Could this report from down-under mean that middle-aged (and even older!) minds tend to be wiser, steadier, and more capable overall? The report’s lead author, Gilles Gignac, chuckled that “while some people might find this obvious, it had never been quantified and establish scientifically.”

Isn’t it beautiful that our God, Alpha and Omega, Lord of Time, equips us to offer the world help in each season of our lives?

For everything there is a season and a time for every matter under heaven
— Ecclesiastes 3:1 (NRSV)

Reflection Questions

  1. What season of life are you in right now? What blessings are unique to it?
  2. What do you do better or see more clearly now than you did years ago?
  3. How do you deal with not being able to do some activities you used to?
  4. How might you use your growing wisdom or steadiness to bless others?
  5. Where do you sense God’s ongoing shaping or refining in your life?

In Christ’s hope,

Pastor Fritz

Let us pray: Lord of every season, thanks for walking with us through the changing chapters of life. When our bodies ache or slow down, remind us that our spirits can still grow strong and bright. Teach us to value the wisdom, patience, and faith that come with time. Crown us, not just with dental work, but with the grace and glory of a life continually renewed in your love. In Jesus’ name, Amen.