One of the questions that is typically asked when interviewing people of more mature years is this: “If you could give some advice to your younger self, what would it be?” It’s a thoughtful question. But an even better one is this: “If you could give some advice to your older self, what would it be?” For in the words of a haunting poem: ‘Few, they tell me, finish well.’

‘Some Christians live too long’, I read this morning in a commentary on the Book of Isaiah in expounding the life of King Hezekiah. That good man fell into a mortal sickness, but appealed to God for clemency, and was granted a life-extension of fifteen years. But then used those years to make some devastating decisions, including foolishly revealing to foreign envoys all the treasures of his kingdom. It was a grave error of judgement that cost his people dearly, and it would have been better for the nation not to have so enthusiastically sung, “Long live our gracious king”.

Power and pride and self-preservation, if not watched and deliberately mortified, can be deadly killers. “I fear the Dark Spectre [eg death] may come too soon – or do I mean, too late? That I should end before I finish, or finish, but not well. That I should stain Your honour, shame Your name, grieve Your loving heart”. It would have been a good poem for Hezekiah to have read. It’s certainly been a good one for me.