By Todd Paetznick, July 18, 2024

How can we flourish throughout our lifetimes? Flourishing requires understanding one’s purpose, which leads to meaning and a recognition that change and adaptation will take place continually.

Let’s start this discussion by considering life as a line with endpoints.  The line has a starting point on the left, representing the time of birth, and an endpoint on the right, representing the time of death.  Everything we do and accomplish during our lives occurs somewhere along that line.  

How old will we be at the end of our lives?  None of us know with any amount of certainty.  But for the sake of this discussion, let’s assume that our end will not be an accident.  Currently, the life expectancy in the United States is around 76 years.  We can get more precision by looking at the longevity of our parents, grandparents, and other relatives.  How long did they live, or how old are they now?  It is a fair assumption to believe we will outlive them by at least a few years because of likely advances in medicine and technology.  Whatever age we come up with will help us think and plan for the rest of our lives.  How much time do we have remaining to fulfill our purpose?

To complicate planning and flourishing across the rest of our lives, we have no idea what will happen tomorrow.  We may make plans, but we also have enough experience to know that not everything will work out as expected.  James, Jesus’ half-brother, explains that Christ-followers must think and act correctly when planning. Too often, we make our plans without considering God’s role in the outcome of our planning.  We want our plans to turn out how we want them to, and we may get depressed and feel powerless when our plans go sideways.  However, the more mature we grow in our faith, the easier it is for us to accept that God is continually at work in all the events of our lives.  Instead of stating the outcome of our planning in advance, James advises we say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and also do this or that” (James 4:15).  These are not intended to be magic words to get what we want but instead are a correct attitude toward God’s sovereignty.

We do not know what will happen in the future and cannot know when we will die.  Yet, we are expected to make and act on our plans while recognizing that God controls the details of our futures.  In some respects, our inability to know the future and yet be held responsible for what we do with our time does not seem fair.  On the other hand, if everyone on earth could be guaranteed to achieve every outcome of every plan they made, the world would undoubtedly be a very evil place.  Thankfully, God directs all the details of our successes and failures and those of others to our mutual benefit. 

Segmentation

Our life exists between the points on the line that marks our birth and death.  The line can be divided into three segments: childhood, adulthood, and elderhood.  These segments are not necessarily equal in length. They each represent significant differences in our lives and shifts in activity.  

Childhood has preparation for adulthood as its primary task.  Children do not automatically think, say, or do what is expected of adults; they have to learn.  A child lacks experience, and their perspective is limited.  So, whatever a child thinks, says, or does is often overlooked as being typical of a child.  It needs to be noted that childhood preparation is for much more than a future vocation.  Preparation is for all of life, which includes relational, spiritual, physical, emotional, and every other aspect of life.  The adults who watch over children must guard against competing priorities and alternate priorities of other adults with personal and incompatible agendas.  Balance is needed in a child’s life preparation across many disciplines. 

Adulthood is the longest segment of life and can be further subdivided, but for the sake of simplicity, we will consider adulthood as the entire span of one’s working life.  The major shift from childhood to adulthood involves responsibility.  Adults are responsible for themselves and others.  Adults wear many hats representing their distinct roles as money earners, planners, parents, coaches, cooks, drivers, plumbing repairers, financial analysts, spiritual leaders, teachers, etc. 

Elderhood transitions away from earning money as a primary activity. Elders offer significant experience and perspectives on life that younger people bright enough to recognize their value can leverage. Wisdom does not come automatically with age or experience; wisdom represents lessons learned from successes and failures that can be applied to many situations.  An elder’s perspective includes the end of life and what comes next.  For the older Christian, a short life is just the beginning of an eternity that should not be missed.

Flourishing across a lifetime requires consistent attention to fulfilling our purpose.  Next week, we explore how what we do during each segment of life reveals the true purpose we are striving to fulfill.