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Dick Van Dyke and scientists tell us how to live longer · The Daily Article

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  [SPEAKER_00]: It's Thursday, March the 19th, 2026.
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  [SPEAKER_00]: Welcome to Denison Forms Daily Article Podcast, written today by Cultural Theologian, Dr. Jim Denison, and narrated by Chris Elkins.
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  [SPEAKER_00]: The legendary actor and comedian Dick Van Dyke recently became a centenarian.
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  [SPEAKER_00]: He explains his longevity simply.
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  [SPEAKER_00]: He keeps a positive outlook and never gets angry.
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  [SPEAKER_00]: Scientists agree with his theory.
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  [SPEAKER_00]: In one study, people who were optimistic lived between 11 and 15% longer than their pessimistic counterparts.
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  [SPEAKER_00]: In another, those who were more optimistic were likely to live into their 90s than pessimists.
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  [SPEAKER_00]: Research shows that chronic stress and anger are linked to an increased risk of heart disease, stroke, and type 2 diabetes diseases that account for roughly 75% of early deaths.
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  [SPEAKER_00]: Stress is also linked to cellular aging and researcher studying stroke survivors have found that optimism lowers chronic inflammation leading to less severe strokes and less physical disability.
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  [SPEAKER_00]: However, you and I didn't need scientists to tell us what we innately understood that happier people are typically healthier people.
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  [SPEAKER_00]: If only knowing and doing God's will were so obvious and intuitive, I was reading Psalm 77 recently and was struck by verse 16.
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  [SPEAKER_00]: When the water saw you
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  [SPEAKER_00]: Some scholars believe A.S.F.
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  [SPEAKER_00]: was referring to the parting of the Red Sea in Exodus 14, while others point to Israel's miraculous crossing of the flooded Jordan River in Joshua 3.
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  [SPEAKER_00]: However, whatever the specific reference, what God did was stupid this as recorded in Psalm 77 verses 17 and 18.
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  [SPEAKER_00]: The Cloudsport Outwater, the Sky's gay fourth thunder, your arrows flashed on
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  [SPEAKER_00]: Your lightnings lighted up the world, the earth trembled and shook.
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  [SPEAKER_00]: Now to my point, A.S.F.
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  [SPEAKER_00]: then praise in verse 19, your way was through the sea, your path, the great waters, yet your footprints were unseen.
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  [SPEAKER_00]: It's one thing to follow someone whose footprints are obvious to us.
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  [SPEAKER_00]: It's another to follow someone we cannot see, trusting that their word is true, and that their will is best, before we can verify either.
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  [SPEAKER_00]: When the Israelites passed through the parted red sea, its waters were according to Exodus 14 verse 22, a wall to them on their right hand and on their left.
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  [SPEAKER_00]: Imagine what it must have felt like to risk your life and your family in this way, knowing that any moment the waters could come crashing down on you as they did later on the Egyptian army recorded in verse 28 of Psalm 77.
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  [SPEAKER_00]: 40 years later, the people found themselves on the bank of the flooded Jordan River.
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  [SPEAKER_00]: Again, they crossed in peril of their lives, knowing that the flooded Jordan waters could return at any moment to sweep them away, referenced by Joshua 4, verse 18.
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  [SPEAKER_00]: No wonder the people passed over in haste, noted in verse 10.
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  [SPEAKER_00]: God similarly called Abraham to leave his family and homeland, not knowing where he was going, recorded in Hebrews 11 verse 8.
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  [SPEAKER_00]: And the Lord called Paul in Acts 16 verses 6 through 10, to leave where he had been to go to a place he had never gone.
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  [SPEAKER_00]: Solomon famously advised us from Proverbs 3, verse 5, trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding.
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  [SPEAKER_00]: There are times when the first requires the second, when our own understanding is insufficient for understanding the ways of God, and we must trust what we do not see.
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  [SPEAKER_00]: As Jesus said in John 20, verse 29, blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.
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  [SPEAKER_00]: Accordingly, second Corinthians 5, verse 7 reveals that we won't buy faith, not by sight.
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  [SPEAKER_00]: As a longtime pastor in Theologian, I am familiar with the text I just cited.
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  [SPEAKER_00]: That does not mean I like them any better than anyone else.
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  [SPEAKER_00]: I don't want God's footprints to be unseen.
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  [SPEAKER_00]: I don't want to have to go out not knowing where I'm going.
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  [SPEAKER_00]: I want to walk by faith, but also by sight.
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  [SPEAKER_00]: It seems that God requires unseeking faith, as though it is a precondition to knowing his will, a bill we must pay or work we must perform.
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  [SPEAKER_00]: But we are saved by faith.
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  [SPEAKER_00]: Not by works, revealed an Ephesians 2 verses eight, nine.
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  [SPEAKER_00]: There is nothing we can do to make God love us anymore or any less than he does right now because as recorded in 1st John 4 verse eight, God is love.
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  [SPEAKER_00]: Why then, must we so often trust his will before we understand it?
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  [SPEAKER_00]: Because this is often the only way we can understand it.
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  [SPEAKER_00]: How would God prove to the Jews while they cross the Red Sea or the Jordan River that the waters would not return to drown them?
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  [SPEAKER_00]: How could he prove to Abraham before he went out, not knowing that he would become the father of the Jewish nation as a result of his obedience, noted in Galatians 3 verse 6, how could he prove to Paul before he followed his Macedonian vision, that the apostle would take the gospel to the Western world?
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  [SPEAKER_00]: Relationships typically require a commitment that transcends the evidence and becomes self-validating.
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  [SPEAKER_00]: This is true of choosing to be married, having children, taking a job, or even hearing this podcast.
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  [SPEAKER_00]: You can't prove my words are worth your time today until you spend time listening to them.
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  [SPEAKER_00]: As a result, when I want God to explain his will to me before I choose it, I'm asking him to do the logically impossible, like making a square circle, or naming the color of the number 7.
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  [SPEAKER_00]: At such times, I do well to follow SF's example from Psalm 77, verses 11 and 12.
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  [SPEAKER_00]: I will remember the deeds of the Lord.
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  [SPEAKER_00]: Yes, I will remember your wonders of old, I will ponder all your works and meditate on your mighty deeds.
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  [SPEAKER_00]: When I do, I will testify with the Psalmist from verse 13, your way, oh God, is holy.
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  [SPEAKER_00]: And I will find the courage to choose this way myself.
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  [SPEAKER_00]: In Catholic tradition, today is Saint Joseph's Day, a ninth-century calendar, mentions March 19th and Joseph, implying that this was the day he died.
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  [SPEAKER_00]: In 1621, Pope Gregory XV made the commemoration of this day official.
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  [SPEAKER_00]: For Jesus' adoptive father, God's footprints were truly unseen.
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  [SPEAKER_00]: Joseph was told that his fiance was pregnant with the Messiah and instructed to marry her anyway.
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  [SPEAKER_00]: He was told to flee Israel for Egypt and later to return.
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  [SPEAKER_00]: He was directed to settle in Nazareth, a town so small, it's not even mentioned once in the Old Testament.
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  [SPEAKER_00]: And his obedience changed both history and eternity.
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  [SPEAKER_00]: The famed missionary Eric Ladell noted, obedience to God's will is the
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  [SPEAKER_00]: We'll you learn this secret today.