Clarifying Your Mission In MidlifeSýnishorn

Introduction to Ecclesiastes

Midlife is a disruptive season when we realize there might be more years behind us than ahead of us. We wonder whether our lives so far have been worthwhile. We are uncertain about what lies ahead. But midlife is also an opportunity to recalibrate our vision. It’s a time to take stock of our lives and refocus on new dimensions of identity and calling.

Research shows a strong trend in the intersection of age and happiness. Life satisfaction steadily declines in the 20s and 30s, bottoms out in the 40s, then rises through the 50s, 60s, and 70s. When plotted, this data looks like a U-curve reaching its lowest point right around midlife.

Many of us have witnessed dramatic midlife crashes fueled by discontent. Seemingly out of the blue, many experience periods of depression and serious questioning—and some even have serious lapses in judgement with severe consequences.

Consider the dad who has a beautiful home, wife, and kids, and then has an affair and loses everything. Or the devoted mom who is emotionally crippled by the failures of her children. The former prom queen who is consumed by her fight against aging. The pastor who diligently builds a congregation but burns out after years of neglecting his own soul.

In 1965, Canadian psychologist Elliot Jaques created the term “midlife crisis” to describe the stress induced by looking one’s mortality in the eye. We realize our lives have an expiration date. “Forty is the old age of youth,” as Victor Hugo famously wrote, “fifty the youth of old age.”

But it’s not all doom and gloom. Opening our eyes to our mortality and limitations can allow us to live more fully. Midlife is an opportunity to leave some of our youthful folly behind, to look back at our first 40 and refocus on what matters most for however long we have left.

Fittingly, the middle of the Old Testament contains essential reading for the middle years of life: Ecclesiastes.

The psychologist and Holocaust survivor Viktor Frankl advised, “Live as if you were living a second time and as though you had acted wrongly the first time.” That’s the perspective of Ecclesiastes.

Through this ancient book of wisdom, we are invited to learn from another’s midlife crisis, enabling us to weather our own, to journey through someone else’s meaninglessness, and find our own true purpose.