Recalibrate Your Life: Navigating Transitions with Purpose and Hope

Reviewed by:

G. Connor Salter, Professional Writing alumnus from Taylor University, Upland, IN.

Title:

Recalibrate Your Life: Navigating Transitions with Purpose and Hope

Author:

Kenneth Boa and Jenny Abel

Publisher:

InterVarsity Press

http://InterVarsity Press

Publication Date:

February 21, 2023

Format:

Paperback

Length:

256 pages

OVERVIEW

Eventually, all of us will undergo a transitional time. For most people, midlife is when this time arrives—sometimes leading to revived purpose, sometimes to struggle. The questions raised are tough: what is our calling? Is it something different than what we currently do? Is it something we can get paid for, or something we need to make spare time for?

Kenneth Boa and Jenny Abel give readers a model for handling these transitional times. They address the key questions in three sections:

• Perspective: What Gives Meaning to Life?
• Purpose: What Gives Direction to Life?
• Practice: How Do I Wisely Invest My Life?

Each section combines research with anecdotes about the authors’ experiences, showing how to shift well when the time comes.

One of the tough lessons of reading many Christian development books is that there really are no new ideas. New ways of presenting, reorganizing, or resurrecting the old ideas, yes. But not strictly new ideas.

Boa and Abel may not precisely present new ideas with this book, but that doesn’t seem to be their goal. They carefully take the old ideas and take them somewhere new. Plenty of books talk about what it means to have a calling, how to find it, how to make a living from it (or decide to keep it a hobby). These authors are more interested in how to make that shift work—the first step in the process.

They accomplish their goal well. They show the importance of guidance, honesty, and self-awareness in a transitional time. Stewarding time well is key to changing one’s life.

They even push back against some common misconceptions—for example, why we assume 50-65 is the time to start thinking about retiring, whether our best days are behind us. They point out that productivity changes, but the research indicates that life doesn’t go downhill after 50. It’s more of a brief moment of discouragement before people can reassess and find new meaning. Much of our American thinking about retirement comes from 1930s marketing (a time when employers wanted to replace as many older workers as possible). There are genuine reasons to rethink retirement and see life’s second half as a new productive period, not the road’s end.

Abel and Boa do leave some areas underexplored. There’s plenty of talk about faith, but very little about spiritual disciplines—fasting, scripture meditation, liturgical practices, all things that create time for reflection and spiritual guidance. This may show a generation change. Yes, Richard Foster got many Christians interested in exploring this topic through his book Spiritual Disciplines, but Foster is a Quaker. Like C.S. Lewis or Henri Nouwen, he’s been a resource that Baby Boomer and Gen X evangelicals have drawn on but rarely delved deeply into his sources (liturgy, church history). In contrast, younger writers like John Mark Comer (The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry) seem more willing to explore spiritual disciplines, perhaps because they’re less concerned about fitting into the suburban evangelical bubble.

There’s also very little talk about pain—how often we don’t see problems we have ignored or relationships we have neglected until the dysfunction reaches a breaking point. Crises are never fun, and they often leave scars that never fully fade. However, as countless people who have passed through rehab, couples counseling, or job therapy can attest, sometimes that crisis point is the wake-up call we need. Therefore, the section on purpose could have used a chapter on navigating pain—how knowing God’s love for us and ultimate purpose doesn’t change even if we’ve hit a crisis.

Occasional flaws aside, this book still does its stated job well.

Well-communicated guidance on a tough topic.

ASSESSMENT

Rating (1 to 5 stars)

3.5 stars

Suggested Audience

Christians interested in navigating transitional times with wisdom and clarity.

Christian Impact

The writers explore what it means to have a Christ-centered perspective on life, and how that provides hope we need to make changes when the time comes.

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