1. Spirituality and the
Two Halves of Life

2. FIRST HALF SECOND HALF
Age Age 45 to 70+

3. FIRST HALF SECOND HALF
Age 15 to Age 45 to 75+
TRANSITION

4. How does God form us in the 1st
half of life? In the 2nd?
2. What unique assets and advantages
does each half hold?
3. How do we process the transition
between the halves?
4. How do we avoid the pitfalls that
sabotage us along the way?

5. Spirituality and the Two Halves of Life
Stage of Ascent
Needs to Make
Promises to Grow
Stage of Descent
Needs to Rest in God’s
Promises to Grow
Old Fool
Embittered Fool
F===Fool
Crisis of
Limitations
Heroic Journey
Holy Fool

6. Identity
Idealism
Convictions
Heroic Journey

7. Identity
Idealism
Convictions
Heroic Journey
Angry Fool (over and out)

8. Limitations: Our bodies Our vocation Our relationships
Crisis of
Limitations

9. Disillusionment is a divine gift! It allows, even demands, that
we reorient ourselves to reality.
Mark Muesse

10. Success has nothing to teach you after you reach thirty.
Richard Rohr

11. Spiritual Formation in the Ministry
Old Fool
Embittered Fool
Crisis of
Limitations
Heroic Journey
Wounds
Must
Become
Sacred
Holy Fool

12. Why the Transition is Difficult?
because…
The Second Half is Unmapped

13. Wholly unprepared, we embark upon the
second half of life… worse still, we take this
step with the false assumption that our
truths and ideals will serve us as hitherto.
But we cannot live the afternoon of life
according to the program of life’s morning:
for what was great in the morning will be
little in the evening, and what in the morning
was true will at evening become a lie.
Carl Jung

14. Given Western societies’ revulsion against middle age, the map of the youth culture leads us to the edge of the known world, whereupon is simply drops off. We have been as ignorant about what lies on the other side as were Columbus and the early explorers of the New World.
New Passages – Gail Sheehy

15. Midway in our life’s journey, I went astray
from the straight road and woke up to find myself alone in a dark wood.
How shall I say what wood that was! I never saw so drear, so rank, so arduous
a wilderness!
It’s very memory gives a shape to fear.
Death could scarce be more bitter than that place!
Dante’s epic poem – The Inferno

16. If you are lucky, God will lead you to a situation you cannot control, you cannot fix, or you cannot even understand. At that point true spirituality begins. Up to that point is all just preparation.
Richard Rohr

17. Limitations Lead To Transformation
Old Fool
Embittered Fool
Crisis of
Limitations
Heroic Journey
Wounds
Must
Become
Sacred
Holy Fool

18. The second half of life ought to be about
the deepening of our spiritual natures. It
should not be about acquisition but about relinquishment, not about acting but
accepting, not about mastery but mystery.
Mark Meusse

19. Therefore we do not lose heart
Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away (getting old and breaking down), yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day.
II Corinthians 4:16

20. I tell you the truth, unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds. The man who loves his life will lose it, while the man who hates his life in this world will keep
it for eternal life.
John 12:24-25

21. The forties are the gateway to a new beginning, beyond the narrow roles and rules of the first half.”
New Passages by Gail Sheehy

22. The
Circle of
Control

23. The
Circle Of
Control

24. The
Circle Of
Influence

25. Spiritual Formation in the Ministry
Old Fool
Embittered Fool
Crisis of
Limitations
Heroic Journey
Wounds
Must
Become
Sacred
Holy Fool
Wounds become sacred
Secure enough to be insecure

26. It’s almost as if you have to forgive
the things that happened in the first
half of your life – the people who failed
you and the ways you failed yourself –
in order to go on for the second half.
Gail Sheehy

27. What Kind of a Fool… Old Fool Embittered Fool Crisis of Limitations
Heroic Journey
Wounds
Must
Become
Sacred
Holy Fool
Wounds become sacred
Secure enough to be insecure

29. Jesus to Peter:
I tell you the truth, when you were
younger you dressed yourself and went
where you wanted; but when you are old
you will stretch out your hands, and
someone else will dress you and lead
you where you do not want to go.”
John 21:18

30. Spirituality in the First Half
Mastery
Spirituality in the Second Half
Mystery
Mentoring

31. Discussion questions:
Which is the greater temptation for you… becoming an “old fool” or becoming an “embittered fool?”
Have you experienced the “crisis of limitations?” How did it change you?
Is there a Christian leader in your life who people recognize as the “holy fool”? Describe this person.