Finding Second Half Significance in the 40 Year Sunset

A few weeks ago, I asked a question on Facebook – “Brave Moment: Who would be interested in an online community for women who are trying to decide what to do next with their life? Thinking about calling it The Second Half and it would require one of two things - moms of high schoolers to adults or you must be 40+. This would be a place to pour out thoughts, ideas, fears, and struggles of taking that next step, whatever it is, to enjoy your second half of life.”

The Response

Next thing I know it just blew up with "Me, yes, hand raised, I want in!" responses. Hello, somebody - it looks like I’m not the only one and if I can be honest with you, this place of the unknown really sucks. Because it’s as though our next step must be strategic. Our next purpose in life must be significant.  Our first half of our life the world told us to graduate high school, get a degree and a career, get married, and have a family.  Then you can ride off into the sunset living happily ever after.  What the heck?!?!  Someone forgot to tell the fairytale writer that the sunset lasts for another 40 years!! 

So, in the meantime we walk around asking ourselves, "Ok, now what?  I’ve done what the world says we are to do.  Now what? I’m not going to just twiddle my thumbs or work for a business that truly doesn’t give me joy.  I need purpose, I need meaning."  And for us women I think it almost becomes a rite of passage.  We held the title of mother for 18 years.  We trained, we led, we cleaned up, and we raised these amazing kids. Now it appears we aren’t needed as much anymore, if at all, and we find ourselves in this place of needing to feel significant again.  Needing to feel as though we have purpose and meaning for living. 

Now, don’t get me wrong.  Jesus is my Lord and Savior. He lives in me and I need Him daily.  I know that He gives me breath in my lungs and air to breathe. But still - why do we feel this way?  Why do we look at the unknown and call it Midlife Crisis instead of Second Half Significance?  Why? Because we’ve been so busy doing instead of balancing doing with being. When we grab a hold of Ephesians 2:10, we will have a better understanding of what we were created for.

For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. - Ephesians 2:10 ESV

My Focus is You

This is what I will be focusing on – You. Focusing on us and this new journey many of us are on.  Focusing on more being and less doing.  Focusing on our design and our Designer.  Focusing on what makes us get up in the mornings, excited for the day, and focusing on getting rid of the things that have weighed us down for years.  We will talk about the future, along with our pasts.  We will encourage and inspire each other in our next moves and our next seasons, all in a place with ideas and fears. This will be a place of community.

Let’s not live in midlife crisis, but into second half significance!