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Finding purpose in later years
I had a good life, a happy marriage, a lovely home, and financial security, but felt that something was missing. I’d accomplished a great deal in my life but had begun to feel lethargic, uninspired, and restless. And now retirement was looming. Were my productive years over? I wondered. And with an increasing senior population in many parts of the world, I knew I was not alone in feeling this way.
As I prayed about this, I realized I lacked a sense of purpose. I felt I was just taking up space on the planet and was irrelevant, unproductive. But at the same time I felt I was also pumping the brakes as I raced toward an inevitable dead end. Longing for an answer, I turned to the writings of Mary Baker Eddy, a pioneer of spiritual discovery, and found this: “Spirit, God, gathers unformed thoughts into their proper channels, and unfolds these thoughts, even as He opens the petals of a holy purpose in order that the purpose may appear” (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 506).
This was my answer—that God would continue to have a purpose for me after my retirement and would reveal that to me. And that is what happened. I discovered I had an interest in and aptitude for writing. And what a joyful and satisfying discovery it was! Each God-inspired idea that has come—whether it has resulted in an article or testimony published in the Christian Science periodicals or has taken some other form—has blessed me, giving me a wonderful sense of purpose as well as the joy of sharing with others.
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