Book Review: Becoming Sage

 Our faith changes as we get older. Have you noticed? Do you have experiences and questions that could only have come out of the soil of midlife and beyond?  

Michelle Van Loon, in Becoming Sage: Cultivating Meaning, Purpose, and Spirituality in Midlife, explains how our faith journey can be described in stages, based on the work of Janet Hagberg, Robert Guelich, and James Fowler.  These stages from the 'infancy of first belief until the final, self-giving love of a matured faith" each carry their own sets of challenges and tasks. Van Loon describes these stages simply and weaves these truths throughout the book.  

I found her book very readable and relatable. As we get older and experience more - highs and lows, serendipities and deep disappointments - we will grow in wisdom if we allow ourselves to let go of preconceived ideas about how our lives should have played out. We release the grip we have held on so tightly, trying to do everything 'right', hoping for expected outcomes. We realize that Jesus walks with us each step of the way, through the messes and the miracles. Our focus doesn't necessarily look like 'doing great things for God', but being faithful in making the world a better place, laying down our lives for others in simple ways, and becoming more comfortable with being loved by God, no strings attached. We don't have to be 'productive' to be loved. We never have.  As we get older, we are able to use our personal experiences to go deeper with God and others. 

"Maturity is forged from the beautiful and terrible and mundane stuff of our lives as we seek to crawl, stand, walk, and run with Jesus on our way to Real."  

Becoming Sage is an honest,  hopeful book, and one that will encourage those in the second half of life. If you are questioning and looking back at your life, as well as looking ahead, this book will be a great companion. 

Thanks to  Moody Publishers for a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. 

~When~

Another day of freewriting. This idea came to me minutes before I began typing.  There's more I could say about it, but I only have 5 minutes! 

Day 15 When

The question that has got me thinking lately is this: When does midlife start? When does it end? Can I still call myself a woman  in midlife and if not, what do I call myself at the ripe age of 59? I still consider myself in the middle years. I’m not in the beginning years and definitely not near the end. And I refuse to believe that any of my children are in midlife, because.... that’s just  ridiculous ;) 

Well, here’s what I think. I believe midlife starts at about age 40.  I think thirty something is just too young to be considered midlife. Besides, these days this group  is  young, active and amazing and the thirty somethings I know probably wouldn’t settle for being considered middle agers yet.

 I prefer to think of middle years as being from age 40-70. I know it makes no sense, but I think I’d be okay to be considered an old person after I turn 70. And not a day before!  

Photo by Mitch Lensink on Unsplash