On middle age

 

You’ll say I am far too young! But believe it or not, I have begun to think about middle age. It’s a moving target of course. The middle aged tend to be those five or ten years older than me! I recently went to some seminars on the subject at the Bible by the Beach Conference in Eastbourne, and I did wonder if some of the grey-hairs around me had wandered in geriatric confusion into the wrong venue. But then whenever I go to the barbers’ I am shocked to see all that silver falling from my own head. I still basically imagine myself to be the same age as the wedding couples I see, whereas some of them now have dates of birth implausibly into the late 1990s or early 2000s.

 

Anyway, I digress. Perhaps a failing of the middle aged!

 

No doubt each phase of life has its own characteristic temptations. Parents of teenagers might have much to report.

 

Sorry, I’m rambling on again like Shakespeare’s justice:

 In fair round belly with good capon lined,

With eyes severe and beard of formal cut,

Full of wise saws and modern instances;

And so he plays his part.

(Jaques in As You Like It Act II, Scene VII)

 

It has been suggested that one danger of this phase of life might be spiritual middle age spread – taking our ease to a selfish degree. Perhaps the kids have left home and we’ve done our bit. We may be modestly comfortable. There’s a lot to be said for sabbath and rest, for enjoying God’s good gifts with thankfulness. But maybe some of us need a challenge to fresh or renewed ambition. How could we serve and encourage future generations? We might be wise to look up to Christ, not back to past achievements, for our sense of identity and worth. Maybe there’s no retirement from Christian service. How can our time and financial independence benefit the Kingdom?

 

Or perhaps we’re inclined to be a bit world-weary. Do we need to seek the renewal of our delight in Christ and our hope in him? We’ve seen it all. We tried that. The young are so naïve and foolish whereas we are experienced, mature, wise. And so we can easily be jaded and cynical. But perhaps God hasn’t finished with us yet! The Lord’s Prayer might still inspire us: “Hallowed be your name, Your will be done, Your kingdom come!” Even if we don’t have the energy of a twenty or thirty year old, perhaps we can have different forms of passion for Jesus?

 

Suggested reading: The Bible, obviously, perhaps especially Colossians and Romans 8 for some of the points above.

 

An explicitly Christian book: Paul David Tripp, Lost in the Middle: Mid-Life Crisis and the Grace of God (Shepherd Press, 2009)

 

Arthur C. Brooks, From Strength to Strength: Finding Success, Happiness and Deep Purpose in the Second Half of Life (Green Tree, 2023) – Brooks grew up in an evangelical home and became a Roman Catholic

 

Marcus Berkmann,  A Shed Of One's Own: Midlife Without the Crisis (Little, Brown Book Group, 2012) – as far as I know, Berkmann is not a religious believer. I don’t remember being wowed by this book when I first read it but I would have been too young! It’s worth going back to, I think.

 

(Some of the above draws on Lewis and Sarah Allen’s seminar at Bible by the Beach 2025)

                                                                                                                

The Revd Marc Lloyd