The Spiritual Purpose for a Longer Life
I have often stated, humorously, that at 53, I’m old enough to feel pain in my body every day, and still too young to shut up about it. There is goodness in getting the most out of life, and wisdom in knowing what matters most for eternity. But the thought of living to 100, if I’m honest, is not on my life goals list.
Psalm 90 is where Moses records thoughts about his life, in contrast to the God of eternity. Thinking about life’s brevity, he asks, “Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom” (Psalms 90:12). About legacy, he yearns, “May the favour of the Lord our God rest on us; establish the work of our hands for us – yes, establish the work of our hands” (Psalms 90:17).
All this has served as a backdrop for me while reading Lynda Gratton and Andrew J. Scott’s book, The 100-Year Life: Living and Working in an Age of Longevity. I see this work as able to assist in a more positive dialogue about aging, incorporating their expertise from economics and psychology. Gratton and Scott present the idea that longevity can be “a gift and not a curse” [1] by making a necessary move away from the three-stage model of education, work, and retirement designed for a shorter life-span and tethered to whatever capacity one has to fund life after work. They make the case for a fundamental redesign of life [2], by accounting for a balance of both tangible and intangible assets grouped as productive, vitality, and transformational.
One of the keys to this is the concept of juvenescence [3]. Long life is not about being older longer, but being younger longer [4]. Our Doctoral cohort recently heard Thomas F. “Mack” McLarty advocate for his own sense of entrepreneurial vigour in his 70s when asked, ‘Why are you not retired?’ He said it is because “work orders life” [5]. Work is good, but may require re-skilling to choose re-creation over recreation. In order to find fulfilment in a longer life, the authors share, we must focus on intangible productive assets like knowledge, peers, and reputation, vitality assets such as health, balanced living and regenerative friendships, and transformational assets such as self-knowledge and diverse networks [6].
While I agree that this holistic view of a fulfilled life is great, and affirm the role of relationships, especially intergenerational family and long lasting friendships, I would argue that there is something else I have discovered to be valuable for longer life on earth, that I did not feel the book addressed. Vocation.
From my own faith tradition as a follower of Jesus, it is vocational purpose that increases the possibility of sustainable flourishing in the face of an elongated timeline. In their work Calling All Years Good: Christian Vocation throughout Life’s Seasons, Kathleen Cahalan and Bonnie Miller-McLemore pursuasively lay out the four vocational experiences in late adulthood. They are meaningful work; making a difference; facing loss; and the spiritual journey of reconciling with self, God, others, and death [7]. By coupling some of the themes covered by Gratton and Scott with embracing the sanctity of life in late adulthood, there is less room to potentially avoid the meaning and purpose one only discovers by accepting their own aging process. Cahalan presents the connection of late adulthood with “the central themes of calling: discerning one’s gifts, finding purpose, responding in a place not of one’s choosing, and living with authenticity” [8]. Joyce Ann Mercer, in her chapter on Late Adulthood, gives us this insight from Spiritual Director Kathleen Fischer.
From the perspective of faith, the later years provide the most intense and vivid revelation of the paradox at the heart of the Christian Gospel: that in losing our lives we somehow find them; that loss can be gain, and weakness, strength; that death is the path to life. [9]
I want longevity to be a blessing, not a curse. I want to continue to affirm Gratton and Scott’s mantra that “the gift of a longer life is ultimately the gift of time” [10]. And whatever time I am offered, I long to live it paying attention to tangible and intangible assets, but also a vocational purpose that stands, even when the body ages, the mind erodes, and death draws near. With my whole being, I long to state with thankfulness, “Lord, you have been our dwelling-place throughout all generations” (Psalms 90:1).
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[1] Gratton, Lynda, and Andrew J. Scott, The 100-Year Life: Living and Working in an Age of Longevity, London: Bloomsbury Publishing, 2020, 281.
[2] The 100-Year Life, 281.
[3] The 100-Year Life, 171. The authors build on Robert Pogue Harrison’s definition of juvenescence as “the state of being useful or growing young.”
[4] “The 100 Year Life | London Business School”, April 5, 2017, YouTube, 2:47.
[5] Thomas F “Mack” McLarty interview at Portland Seminary Doctoral Advance, Sept 28, 2024.
[6] 100yearlife.com assessment feedback categories.
[7] Cahalan, Kathleen A., and Bonnie J. Miller-McLemore, 2017, Calling All Years Good : Christian Vocation throughout Life’s Seasons, Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 123.
[8] Calling All Years Good, 124.
[9] Calling All Years Good, 144.
[10] The 100-Year Life, 167.
About the Author
Joel Zantingh
Joel Zantingh is a catalyst for peacemaking and intercultural teams, speaker, theologian and consultant. He is the Canadian Coordinator of the World Evangelical Alliance's Peace and Reconciliation Network, and the Director of Engagement with Lausanne Movement Canada. He has served in local and national roles within the Evangelical Missionary Church of Canada, and led their global mission arm. He has experience teaching in formal and informal settings with Bible college students and leaders from various cultures and generations. Joel and Christie are parents to adult children, as well as grandparents. They reside in Guelph, Ont., situated on the treaty lands and territory of the Mississaugas of the Credit, and home to many past, present and future First Nations peoples, including the Anishinnabe and Hodinöhsö:ni'.9 responses to “The Spiritual Purpose for a Longer Life”
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Hey Joel thanks for your insightful post and the importance of vocation. How do people transition well when the role that they are in to fulfill their vocation changes? I’m thinking especially about people in pastoral roles that vacate or transition out of those but have equated their role with their vocation. How can they transition well with the principles you’ve outlined above?
Great question, Ryan. I’d love to hear your thoughts on this as well. As I shared in the post, Cahalan’s connection to vocation in late adulthood include “the [4] central themes of calling: discerning one’s gifts, finding purpose, responding in a place not of one’s choosing, and living with authenticity”.
The difficult side effect of the standard 3-stage life is to attach “vocation” with work, and perhaps that’s why so many struggle to know what to do in retirement, and why Gratton and Scott, and Mack McLarty reinforce it with renewed entrepreneurial vigor.
All four of these later-age connections to vocation require an uncoupling of the sense of calling with work alone. All the other roles one plays reveal calling too. ‘Who am I now?’ needs to be answered by assessing who I am consistently across all aspects of my life: in my hobbies, how I function when I cook or drive, what I love to offer in friendship, in community service, what motivated me most in my job that I no longer have, etc. All of these bring reassurance of the underlying sense of calling / vocation that can be retooled in later life, even when formal obligations fade.
Joel, thanks for bringing vocation into this conversation. I was looking for this in the book but didn’t see it. This sense of calling to something and Someone greater that our own personal happiness makes a profound difference, in my opinion.
What societal and cultural factors should we be aware of as we help people discern their vocation in the later years?
Joel,
You need to drink more age buster drinks. Our university is focusing on vocation, helping students understand the concept and even to discern their own. A few years ago the faculty read a book titled Living Vocationally: The Journey of the Called Life by Paul Wadell and Charles Pinches. The book has many quotes but I like this one “our fundamental calling is to be fully ourselves, that is, the person God wills us to be, serving him gladly with the time and place and people we have been given.” [1] They also discuss the many callings we have, husband, father, church leader, etc. and how hard it is to effectively fulfill all our callings well. Over the years, do you feel you have had callings you have not been able to fully attend to or have passed on? If so, do you think any of them may resurface later in life?
[1] Paul Wadell and Charles Pinches, Living Vocationally: The Journey of the Called Life, (Eugene, OR: Cascade Books, 2021), 34.
Jeff, I love all of this. The memory of my “age-buster” smoothie in Washington, and this book, and the syntopical gold of Wadell and Pinches you’ve brought in.
From the standpoint of journey, and what I posted above in response to Ryan’s query, I have far more of an open and non-linear view of the development of one’s vocational call. Even the roles you’ve mentioned are not static, but grow, ebb and flow in the seasons of life. So I’m not surprised that I look back on elements of calling that were foundation-laying in my 20s, which I am only now able to execute on. I also see, already in my 50s, more of the seeds of calling in earlier seasons of life, which includes childhood.
Great question. What are your thoughts on this matter?
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Joel,
I, too, appreciate the idea of vocation that you bring into this. One thought that I had reading the book was also that it is okay for our society to tone down a bit the idea of productivity. What really constitutes being productive? Simply being busier does not mean more productive. Yet, so often when we ask friends how they are doing, the answer is, “I’m so busy” and we wear it like a badge. I think that as we age we learn to get away from this a bit more.
Joel, I am now eager to read the book you cite here. As you think about your own vocation for the next several decades, is there anything God is placing on your heart? Or is much of it still a bit shrouded in mystery? Where would you DESIRE God call you, vocationally, in the future?
Hi Joel,
Thanks for bringing up “vocational purpose.” How would counsel someone who desires this but is struggling to find it?
Hi Joel,
Thanks for brining in the idea of vocational purpose. Your post is giving me language to help describe why I want to work long, I have vocational purpose! I don’t “have” to work, but I really, really want to!