Reviews
Aging with purpose Aging Matters: finding your calling for the rest of your life. By R. Paul Stevens (Eerdmans, 2016, 193 pp. $16 U.S.)
W
e know by looking around (and by enduring our own creeping senescence) that a lot of people are getting older. By Paul Stevens’ count, “A thousand Canadians and ten thousand Americans turn sixty-five every day.” Many of them approach the end of their careers by lapping up everything they can read about retirement. This book deserves a special place on their list, as it explores terrain beyond what one usually expects of a retirement guide (such as finances, insurance, household logistics and health). It is one of the rare ones to take seriously the seeming end of one’s “calling.” Stevens, professor emeritus of marketplace theology at Regent College, Vancouver, comes to this topic with plenty of cred. His many writings on the ministry of daily life include The Other Six Days and Doing God’s Business. He has written numerous work/faith articles for this magazine and has spoken at a number of MEDA conventions. In promoting this book, Stevens’ publisher quips that he “built a career around the biblical notion that work and calling are for all of life. Then he retired.” In this book he applies his lifetime of practical theology to the world “after work.” Readers who thought it was “all done now” will be pleasantly surprised by what he finds. Stevens reviews the social and spiritual benefits of daily work and observes that “Most good work in this world is a way to extend the kingdom of God and to bring shalom to people and creation.” That assignment does not end
with retirement, which Stevens reframes as a time of continued calling and productivity, an extraordinarily fruitful season of life, and a kind of “second chance” to explore life’s mysteries and increase spiritual depth. Our callings persist into every stage of life, he says, though our work may not be the same as what we did before. It
“Aging may be like a magnifying glass pointing out what has been unchecked in earlier years.” can be even better. The Bible, he notes, depicts many old people and mentions retirement only once (Numbers 8:23-25 where Levites were urged to retire at age 50). Biblical characters may have concluded their remunerated work but not their callings. Many remained active in their ministries and in fact “received fresh revelation of God in their senior years.” 21
His chapter on The Vices of Aging notes that some habits and attitudes harden with age. “Indeed, aging may be like a magnifying glass pointing out what has been unchecked in earlier years.” The seven deadly sins do not vanish in a burst of superannuated magic. Pride, envy, anger — even lust! — can still afflict the elderly. Some retirees may become more controlling; others more greedy as they worry about making ends meet. Perhaps their deadliest sin is laziness, when fading initiative morphs into a kind of “institutionalized sloth” as people “cruise themselves to death.” Aging folk may think of themselves as overripe bananas, but why not instead as a fine wine on the cusp of perfection? Aging is not only biological but also spiritual, says Stevens. There’s plenty of opportunity for more growth. In fact, aging can enrich spirituality because it “slows us down and teaches us to accept things we cannot change.” Contrary to the murmur of aches and pains, aging is not the relentless erosion of humanity, Stevens says. “Rather it is the reverse. Aging should make us more human and not less, and certainly more deeply human.” At a time of life “when we are no longer striving to succeed in a career, or when drivenness is reduced, we may deepen our resting in God as our portion, our bounty, and our delight.” — Wally Kroeker The Marketplace January February 2017
