In his book, Mid-Life Course Correction , which I highly highly recommend, and in fact if you are going to be in any "In the Middle" class that I teach, will be mandatory reading...
...in this highly recommended book (did I already say that?) Gordon MacDonald talks about the time when he was counseling a man who was in a full blown mid-life crisis. He suggested to him to "designate a 45 day period during which you will dabble in studying the architecture of your whole life in order to set it on an entirely new course..."
Obviously, MacDonald was not telling this man to quit his job, or to become someone he wasn't, or divorce his wife, buy some sheep and chickens and "reinvent himself" in some dramatic way. No, the most profound course corrections are the shifts in attitude.
Always, always act from a fresh, new, optimistic, Christ-centered attitude. Never make decisions when you are feeling discontent or at loose ends or depressed. Actually, I cannot emphasize that enough. Address the inner first, always. The outer will follow.
It never works in reverse.
That's all we are doing, here. We are taking 31 days to find a fresh, new outlook on this all-important middle-time of life. After all, your middle entirely determines your end. The choices you make here in your middle determine your outcome in a more profound way than even the choices you made when you began.
The Bible says nothing in particular about middle age, because the Bible tells us everything we need to know about middle age. We truly need not consult any other oracle. We aren't looking for text about middle age, we are looking for a context for middle age.
Scripture gives us rich context.
"Sing and rejoice, O daughter of Zion: for lo, I come, and I will dwell in your middle, saith the Lord."
(Zechariah 2:10, quoted with only slight poetic license. Look it up for yourself...)
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