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99,763
The number of people aged over 100 in Japan, according to government estimates. Japan has set new records every year for the last 55 years for the number centenarians in the country. The oldest woman is 114, while the oldest man is 111 — 88% of the centenarians are female. Japan has low obesity rates and high levels of activity in later life, the BBC reported, which are likely contributing factors. Although another contributing factor may be that some of the hundred-not-out cohort have in fact been dead for some time. In 2010 researchers found that “Tokyo’s oldest man” had been dead for 32 of his reported 111 years and was lying mummified in bed while his family collected his pension.

Matthew 21:12-13

King James Version

12 And Jesus went into the temple of God, and cast out all them that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the moneychangers, and the seats of them that sold doves,

13 And said unto them, It is written, My house shall be called the house of prayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves.

Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. Romans 12:21

Doctor Dolittle, the fictional doctor who converses with animals, has delighted fans through books, movies, and plays. However, few people know that author Hugh Lofting first wrote the Dolittle tales to his children from the ghastly trenches of World War I. He later said that the war was too awful to recount in his letters—so he wrote and illustrated stories instead. These whimsical, joy-filled tales were Lofting’s way of pushing back against the war’s horror.

It’s inspiring to see a person moving against the menacing, degrading forces that seem too powerful to thwart. We admire this resilient courage because we fear that injustice, violence, and greed will triumph. Sometimes we fear that the whole world will be “overcome by evil” (Romans 12:21). And these fears are well-founded if we’re left to ourselves. However, God has not left us to ourselves. He fills us with His divine strength, places us in the action, and calls us to “overcome evil with good” (v. 21).

We each overcome evil with good in whatever ways God has put into our hearts. Some of us write beautiful stories. Some of us care for the poor. Some of us make our homes places of welcome. Some of us share God’s story through melody, poetry, or conversation. In a myriad of ways, we carry His goodness and peace into the world (v. 18), overcoming evil as we go.