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Jen Wilkin | Aging Wisely in an Anti-Aging World
September 24, 2026 · 43 min
In this episode, Haley and Dustin talk with Bible teacher and author Jen Wilkin about her new book, Dust to Dust: Aging Wisely in an Anti-Aging World. Jen shares how an early cancer diagnosis and later caring for her mother shaped the way she thinks about mortality, dependence, and growing older.
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Hope for the Heart is a worldwide biblical counseling, coaching, and caregiving ministry founded by June Hunt in 1986. We’re passionate about helping people
September 24, 2026 · 43 min · Hope Talks Podcast Videos
In this episode, Haley and Dustin talk with Bible teacher and author Jen Wilkin about her new book, Dust to Dust: Aging Wisely in an Anti-Aging World. Jen shares how an early cancer diagnosis and later caring for her mother shaped the way she thinks about mortality, dependence, and growing older. ...more Show the full description Show less In this episode, Haley and Dustin talk with Bible teacher and author Jen Wilkin about her new book, Dust to Dust: Aging Wisely in an Anti-Aging World. Jen shares how an early cancer diagnosis and later caring for her mother shaped the way she thinks about mortality, dependence, and growing older.
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In this video 0:00 A Brush with Mortality and Relearning Hope in Christ10:30 The False Story of Anti-Aging and the True Story of Scripture20:30 The Chiasm of Human Life and the Blessing of Caregiving31:30 Caring for the Body with Wisdom, Not Vanity39:30 The Church's Call to a Pro-Life Ethic from Womb to Tomb
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A Brush with Mortality and Relearning Hope in Christ 0:00 And aging, if we receive the gift of a very long life, which pretty much everybody says they want, will involve suffering, physical suffering of some kind, physical limitations that0:12 unlike, you know, I have a I'm recovering from a broken leg right now. Unlike my broken leg, which will get better, we will have diminishments to our physical abilities that we will not get back. We tend to see that0:24 as, as an indicator that the 2nd 0.5 of life, the part where we tend to give back our physical abilities and capabilities must all be about loss. And the Lord takes weakness and turns it to strength.0:37 Welcome to Hope Talks. We're your hosts. I'm Haley Scully along with Dustin Anderson, and we wanna give you every reason for hope for every challenge in life because hope means everything.0:55 Hey, guys. We had Jen Wilkin on the podcast today, and we had a really encouraging conversation on aging. Mhmm.1:02 It's1:02 not something we always like to think about or talk about. But we, discussed her new book, it's called From Dust to Dust, Aging Wisely in an Anti Aging World. And even though it's a topic we don't always like to think1:14 about, it was actually very encouraging and insightful conversation.1:17
1:29 She had some wise words for the church to consider as our generations age and our congregations age. So listen to today's episode. Be encouraged by it. Like and subscribe to the podcast. Maybe
1:41 share this episode or another episode that you've enjoyed with somebody. We are just so honored that you would be following along with us on hope talks. And we know you're going to like the conversation with Jen Wilkin.
1:52 Dustin today is a treat. Yes. Because also it's guest day. Yeah. Right? We are so excited. I know a lot of people are gonna recognize our guests, are gonna have been a part
2:04 of her Bible studies, maybe been discipled by things that she has written and talked about. So we have Jen Wilkin with us today. Let's high 5 in advance. High 5. Tell us some more about who Jen was.
2:15 Jen, 1st, welcome to Hope Talks. Thanks for being here.
2:17 Thank you so much for having me on, guys.
2:19 Alright. For those of you who don't know, Jen Wilkin is an author, speaker, and Bible teacher who spent decades helping Christians study scripture for themselves with greater depth and clarity. She's the author of a
2:30 number of books, including Women of the Word, None Like Him, In His Image, and several Bible studies as we mentioned. But her newest book is called, Dust to Aging Wisely in an Anti
2:42 aging World. It just came out this July and so we're excited to get into that today. But also the co host of the Knowing Faith podcast and just a widely respected voice on biblical literacy. And
2:53 again, just helping Christians understand scripture for themselves and apply God's word to our lives. And so I'm really excited for our discussion today. Yeah. So thank you.
3:02 Yeah. I also would like us to get buttons or something that say women of the word. What a fun thing to consider and hopefully represent well of
3:14 being women of the word. I love that. But Jen, as you're here today, we're going to get into the book, but like with all of our guests, we always ask you to share maybe 1 of your hope stories. What is a
3:26 time that you really learned to, had to, understood what it meant to put your hope in Christ? And for some people that is, they're like, when I was saved, I got it. I understood. And
3:38 then for a lot of people, maybe it was a trial or a time in their lives that they were like, okay, this is what it means to anchor in him and have my hope in him. So thank you for being with us. And Jen, what would be a
3:49 hope story you would share with
3:50 us today? Well, I remember, gosh, I hate to start off so intense, but I guess everybody has to, right? I, when I was 26, I gave birth to my 1st child, actually share a little of this
4:02 in this book, Gave birth to my 1st child, Matt, and, quit a full time job, stay home with him. Nice work if you can get it. And finally was able to do some preventive health care that I hadn't been doing because
4:14 I had been working so much. And I went in and had some moles removed, and 1 of them was malignant melanoma. And by the time I got the cancer diagnosis and for those I
4:26 know a lot of people are like, oh, that's not a big deal. But, like, if you don't catch that, it goes to your brain and your liver and your lungs. It's like, you know, it's great if you catch it, and if you don't catch
4:37 it, it's bad. And I hadn't been to the dermatologist in, I don't know, 6 years at that point, so I didn't know how long it had been there. And they called me with the diagnosis, and in between having the
4:49 mole excision and getting the results, I had taken a pregnancy test and I was pregnant with my 2nd child. So I had a 4 month old and was newly pregnant. So I thought, well, okay, they'll
5:01 just remove it and everything will be fine. For the most part, that was true. But my internist, when I was finally able to go in and have all of my base line tests done after I gave birth to Mary Kate, they did a wide
5:11 excision on me while I was pregnant, and I couldn't have painkillers. I mean, it was a whole thing. So they sent me to the internist, and the internist said, well, you don't want your dermatologist to be your oncologist.
5:23 And I said, well, right. I don't want an oncologist. And he said, well, you don't get to say that. Sent me down to MD Anderson, and they took 1 look at me and said, we want you to come every 3 months. So the whole
5:35 time I was having children, I had 4 kids in 4 years, I am trying to get down, drive down to the medical center, have, you know, I've had over
5:47 100 moles removed at this point. Every single 1 of them is just plastic to some degree. And so it's always waiting for the test results, wondering, did we miss 1? Did we not? You know, because I I remember the
5:59 internist telling me, oh, it could have been a difference of just a couple of months between this, metastasizing. And I felt like I had a bull's eye painted on me in my twenties and had to
6:11 really reckon with how indispensable I thought I was to my family, to the well-being of my kids. And I remember reaching a place of being able to
6:22 say, even though I didn't wanna say it, if I die, it must be better for my children because otherwise the Lord would not allow it. Like, he would provide everything they needed. I talk about actually in the aging book
6:34 about how the further I got from the diagnosis, the more I sort of forgot that clarity and had to be reminded of it again and again and so I would I've often joked that the Lord knows how
6:45 forgetful I am so I have to twice a year go in and be reminded that I'm I'm, not indispensable and that he he's sovereign. And so my, yeah, my hope of tomorrow is in him,
6:58 and that means that today I can live this day well, sufficient unto the day.
7:03 That's a lot to happen in such a short amount of time. So 4 kids in 4 years Yes.
7:07 It's a bunch.
7:08 Pregnant. And then
7:09 Wouldn't it have been great if there'd been some twins in there? But no.
7:13 No. Lining them up. Not stacking them up. You're lining them up. Stayed pregnant. I just think the way that you just said that, you know, there is a clarity that comes
7:25 in that diagnosis.
7:26 There is
7:26 a there's a clarity and a focus that you have to go through
7:32 Yeah.
7:32 When you experience something, especially out of timeline. Yeah. Right? At your at the age that you were when you were 1st diagnosed and going through this with your early kids, like it's out of timeline of our
7:44 expectations. And so it's a lot to breathe in when you hear the faith and the hope that somebody has through a trial like that. It is it's set apart
7:56 from what a lot of people experience. And I think that's when, when you 1st say that it's hard to come back and say something. Because what do you say to a young mom who recognizes
8:08 that level of dependency on the goodness and the sovereignty and the plan of God, not only for you, but for your kids?
8:15 Yeah.
8:16 It's a really hard lesson to
8:18 Well, and I'm embarrassed I'm embarrassed to say it's 1 I've had to relearn over and over again, you know. I mean, that's I'm I'm 57 now, so my initial diagnosis was over 30 years ago.
8:30 And, and so it's easy to forget. You know? It's easy to think, oh, well, you know, maybe I don't need to go in anymore, and I will always need to go in. You know? And, the people who
8:42 who don't go in are the ones who are who are most at risk. But there's also this incentive to forget, like, to be like, oh, that didn't feel good. I don't wanna think about that. Anyone listening, and I'm sure the people
8:54 who answer this question for you on your podcast all the time, you know that when you have a a brush with death or with your mortality, that you experience this thing called the narrowing of priorities where you have a
9:05 lot of clarity about what really matters. And, you know, we wanna live our lives that way every day, but there are so many things to distract us and lawless that we don't. And so I can
9:17 honestly say I look on that aspect of this as a gift. I don't wanna have this in my story, but I'm thankful that it's been something that has helped me sort of re up with, okay, are the main things still the main
9:29 things? Anytime there's a scary report that comes back or something like that. And then, you know, my my brush with mortality is so much less terrifying than the
9:40 person who has to go through chemo or radiation or, you know, lose a limb. I mean, there are so many stories out there.
9:47 Mhmm.
9:48 So I also can feel gratitude that the Lord gave me something that is manageable and also as a reminder. I think that's such a
9:57 a good point, and you probably allude to that, of why we forget. Mhmm. Now listen, I like to learn a lesson and never have to be taught at
10:05 any point,
10:06 which is not true. Immediately right now, even recently, I'm like, I I know this. Yeah. I know this.
10:13 Yeah.
10:13 I I I've done this with the Lord. I've got this. Why would I be struggling again with it? In your words, how would you say it's easy for us to forget and have to learn it
10:25 again? And what's the value in that?
10:27 Well, I mean, you know, you look at the 1 true story of the world, AKA the Bible, and what is what is Israel's besetting sin? It's forgetfulness. They forget to remember over and over and over again.
The False Story of Anti-Aging and the True Story of Scripture
10:39 And so why do we have that warning there for us? Well, in the Lord's kindness, sometimes we don't have to learn from our own mistakes. We can learn from someone else's, you know? And I think that it is because, you know,
10:49 we talk in the in the book about living in a false story. And the 1 true story of the world is saying, do you know what you do? You forget. That's why you need new morning mercies
11:01 because every day there's some aspect of this true story that you're gonna forget. And the world around you is incentivizing you to forget it. I just think that, post fall, that's what
11:13 we do. We forget. The Lord is determined by repetition to help us remember, and he he graciously resources us in so many ways with reminders if we are willing
11:25 to heed the signposts.
11:27 So true.
11:29 So you brought up the book, and I do wanna speak into that a little bit because 1 of the things you mentioned is kind of the true story and the false story. I do wanna ask about that, but 1 of the things that you
11:40 mentioned a few times throughout it is the serpent's promise in Genesis 3 of you you will not surely die. Yeah. And I feel like that's kind of a thing we've been saying without saying is, like, we for we actually forget
11:52 that we're dust Yeah.
11:53 And
11:54 that we are going to die. Yeah. And we are mortal, and we do have these health scares and things like that. And there's actually wisdom to be found in, like, remembering this stuff.
12:05 Yeah. Like, remembering that we're dust. Yeah. And so it's, yeah, it's it's humbling stuff to be reminded of at the same time. It's like every day, like you said, like every day we're aging.
12:15 Right.
12:15 Like, it's it's in front of us every day.
12:18 Yeah. Well, what's funny is I'm sure you have people on all the time who talk about their area of interest and, and maybe sometimes a listener can relate, maybe other times they can't. But I can say with
12:30 absolute certainty that everybody listening to this podcast is older than they were when they started listening. This is something we all you know, tomorrow you will be older than you are today. And so we
12:42 ignore meditating on the significance of that to our peril and and the the peril is is a spiritual 1 and so that's why I think it's important to to to talk about it, get it out there in the open.
12:54 Yeah. Yeah. So what led you to write this? Because a lot of your books have, you know, you write bible studies, they're often on, like, kind of theological topics. So, like and this 1 almost kinda seems like an
13:05 outlier. Like, of all the topics, like, what led you to kinda write on aging?
13:10 It's definitely an outlier, and I wrestled with whether I wanted to, deviate because, repetition is the mother of learning. And I thought if I just stay on message and keep talking about bible literacy over and
13:22 over again from 1000 different angles, then that's gonna serve, serve the church the best in the long run. But I would say that this was sort of the confluence of my experience of
13:33 losing my mother and then my experience particularly in women's ministry spaces, but I would say just serving in the local church. Everything I've written is a product of serving in the local church. They
13:45 don't, these books don't just like fall out of the sky into my head. They're the sort of the overflow of what I'm seeing on the ground. And this book is actually written into what I perceive to be a void. I
13:57 don't hear anyone preaching on aging. I don't hear anyone teaching on it. What I do hear, especially in the women's space is
14:10 you do you boo. I don't want to judge however you want to go about this. You know? And I think, gosh, I mean, that's what pagans say is my body, my choice. And so there was the whole issue of
14:22 how women in particular were processing aging with being bombarded by messages from the world, anti aging messaging. And also men, you know, I
14:34 mean, I'm seeing it in the men's space as well. It's different. It's same, but different in the men's space, but, equally difficult. You know, there's the thing where men get better looking the older they get and women,
14:44 you know, it's like I I joke that, like, my husband, when we got married, I kinda did him a favor, and now he's doing me a favor. But,
14:52 Oh, that's a good way to say it.
14:54 But, so, you know, I do think for women, the appearance thing is a harder hit. I think for men, the ability thing is is a really hard hit, the the loss of, of relative, physical autonomy.
15:06 But, it's hard on both sides, and I didn't hear anyone pushing back on the false story that as I moved into my forties and fifties became an
15:18 absolute deluge of, aging is something to deny. Aging is something to conceal. You know, I'll say my age and people are like, wow, you just said it. You just owned it. And it's like,
15:30 it's my, you can Google it online. You know, it's my age. It's, it's how old I am. There's nothing to hide, But there's no higher compliment that we can pay to a woman than to say, wow, you don't look that old. Why why
15:42 is that the compliment? You know? And with the death of my mom, she was, I've had such a charmed life. She was the 1st person close to me who I lost, and she died at
15:54 home. She died during the omicron spike of COVID, and so there wasn't a facility she could stay in. You know, they they had a no, no hospital space, and they said
16:06 she's coming to your home to die. And I will say this, I thought, why would she die at my home? Like, people are supposed to die in hospitals. How am I gonna do all the
16:18 things for her that I've watched the nurses do for her for the last 2 weeks? And, of course, there was a way to do those things. But in her dying, I began to put together some pieces about the shape of
16:30 life that I had not really put together before. And I thought, you know, what if there's something to be learned here, something that might have been placed here on purpose by the Lord so that our our path through
16:41 aging might actually be something we can we can navigate with with wisdom instead of with denial.
16:48 Yeah. I really like that. Even though words you used, I had never thought of concealer and concealing our age. Like, as soon as you said that,
17:00 it's like a light bulb. Like, how much we are attacked with the thought that that I mean, I was and then I was thinking of my grandma. Like, they literally just had Oil of Olay
17:10 Oh, yeah.
17:10 Or a jar of, like, Merle Norman. There was this thick lotion that I can still smell right now. Yes. It was like the night cream, the Merle Norman night cream. Yeah. But now Beef tallow
17:21 and infrared and yeah. Yes. When we eat, what we insane.
17:26 All of it.
17:27 Yeah. It's it's the new legalism. It's it is crazy.
17:31 Yeah. And there is such a pressure. So I think you're right. Speaking into that, if if everything that we go through you used the word provide for your kids earlier. If the Lord
17:43 provides for all of our needs Yeah. If he's got a plan and a path and a purpose for us, if he is a good father Mhmm. Then why wouldn't we, in these stages of life and in these
17:55 things, why wouldn't we take that to him? And it's not listen. I don't have beef tallow. I do have some Crisco.
18:01 You're just a Crisco girl. Yeah.
18:03 Yeah. I know. I Yeah. Have some stuff I try to use on my eyes. So I'm not saying that I'm gonna
18:08 come into our not have any eyes. Let's not go that far. Yeah. The skin needs moisture. We can do some stuff. Smell like, you know, a cheeseburger, that's that's your business. I do not. Yeah.
18:20 Honestly. Yeah.
18:21 But it it it's a lot to take in. Why wouldn't we take that to the Lord? I love that you're bringing that message.
18:29 Well, and what I found was there was a general this is the number 1 pushback I'll get right out of the gate is, well, but, you know, death is an enemy. So therefore, aging must also be an
18:40 enemy. So we should do everything we can to rail against aging. I'll hear that a lot. And that's why in the book, I wanted to start with a theology of time, a theology
18:52 of aging, and then a theology of the body. Because I think that we come at this issue without that framework, and so it's no wonder we end up with you do you. We actually don't
19:04 think the Bible has anything to say about it. And, you know, it turns out in the final analysis that aging, like all other consequences of the fall,
19:16 is something that the Lord takes from being for our harm and turns for being for our good if we submit ourselves to him in in the midst of it. So any form of suffering is gonna do
19:28 that for us. And aging, if we receive the gift of a very long life, which pretty much everybody says they want, will involve suffering, physical suffering of some kind, physical
19:39 limitations that unlike, you know, I have a I'm recovering from a broken leg right now. Unlike my broken leg, which will get better, we will have diminishments to our physical abilities that we will not get
19:51 back. We tend to see that as, as an indicator that the 2nd 0.5 of life, the part where we tend to give back our physical abilities and capabilities, must all be about loss. And the Lord takes weakness and
20:03 turns it to strength all the time.
20:05 Yeah. Amen. Yeah.
20:07 I like that.
20:08 I wanna go into a little bit of this probably relates to the theology of time that you've Mhmm. Mentioned. Like, I find it so interesting that a lot of the book is built around
20:20 nerdy seminary word alert
20:22 Nerdy seminary word alert.
20:23 A chiasm
20:24 Yes.
20:25 And how, like, the parallels between, like, the beginning of life and the end of life is kind of complete dependence.Show more
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