“We talk about loneliness as if it were simply the lack of a friend or a spouse, when I believe it should be wholly understood as the lack of a purpose. We desperately need friends and spouses to enjoy the vital social and relational dimensions of who we are and who we were created to be, but friends and spouses do not and cannot give us purpose.
Purpose is more than just “something to do with one’s time,” i.e., the opposite of idleness. It stands to reason that purpose counters idleness, but I am proposing that it does more than that. Purpose reverses a life where things are done for us, to a life where we do things for others. It facilitates a life not contingent on the approval of others, but rather, within our own agency. With purpose, the need is not to receive honor or respect, but to be honorable and respectable. It addresses the issues not only of our time, but also of our character, by requiring service and sacrifice. It has an inner and outer focus—our internal hopes and dreams, and the external way in which they are achieved.”
-CHAPTER ONE
“Assuming that the predominant sin of the church is congregants working too hard defies common sense. Given any cultural awareness at all, pastors must be aware of the epidemic I described in chapters 1 and 2. The infantilization of young adult men, in particular, is so well-known that it has become the stuff of memes, skits, sitcoms, and movies. It is a theological choice by pastors to preach endlessly about the dangers of work, career, and professional ambitions when video game obsessions are a deeper cultural reality.”
-CHAPTER FOUR
“The most common way that people deal with the tension between Biblical support for wealth and its warnings against idolatry and greed. The kneejerk response is to accumulate the amount of money needed to sustain their own comforts, convenience, and peace, then immediately view anyone above that line as in a moral violation of excess. In other words, we find a lifestyle that is attainable and comfort-able, then proceed to judge those who have more. We see this as a perfect solution- it provides people their desired material comforts and amenities, while allowing them the sanctimonious moral superiority complex that always accompanies envy.
I am well aware that not everyone does this consciously. I do not believe that judgment against those of various financial positions is always explicit. I am referring to an underlying mentality that rationalizes a certain quality of life (a quality of life, I would add, that shouldn't need rationalization), and yet acts as if the "danger zone" of Biblical warning about wealth begins right above their line and position. Candidly, it is exhausting.”
-CHAPTER FIVE
“Retirement" will happen when God takes me to Him. I don't know the day or hour when that will happen, but I do know the kind of life God wants for me until then. While the exact sched-ule, parameters, daily obligations, and routines will adjust over time and, Lord willing, time and space for various other activities will open up I believe that God wants me and that I owe the world around me to stay engaged, hungry, and productive.
The contemporary approach to "retirement" is not merely damaging society as a whole but damaging both those whose contributions are being cut off, and the people who are losing the valuable contributions of those exiting the workforce. It is a lose-lose-lose proposition.”
-CHAPTER SEVEN
“I admire [the] desire for middle-aged adults to find peace and contentment, but the need of the hour is topresent one's whole life as significant, not just life after the age of fifty. We should be defending and affirming success as a byproduct of a life well-lived, not a crass, self-serving pursuit that can only be atoned for by a second half of life filled with appropriate changes in mentality and activity. Our mentality and activity may very well look different at age thirty and age seventy, but that is not because the former is cursed by the worldliness of success and the latter rooted in significance.”
-CHAPTER EIGHT
“When we refer to a work-life balance, we are linguistically pitting two things against each other. We are presupposing that one is not a part of the other, and, in fact, that the two are to some degree at odds. Throughout this book, I have tried to dismantle the dualism that pits the sacred against the secular. I would suggest that an equally malignant form of dualism is this very notion of ‘work versus life.’ Our work is not set against our life, and our life is not in competition with our work. This binary is conceptually wrong because it is theologically errant.”
-CHAPTER TEN
“We know that what people do matters, but we often choose to pretend it is just an abstraction. It is not. Activity and achievement are very much a part of our identity, and the only real question is how comfortable one is in saying so. Note that I did not say it’s only career achievements that determine one’s life or identity. The material prosperity that flows from one’s career is not the core of one’s identity. But how one works, whatever the outcome, is an important part of one’s identity—one’s passion, discipline, service, and purpose. We are judged by our faithfulness with what we are given, what we are called to, what resources we have, and what we invest into our respective callings.”
-CONCLUSION