"Recalibrate Your Life" by Kenneth Boa and Jenny Abel. A Review

 

Here I am, 62 years old (but still 16 inside, mind you), and I find myself thinking about retirement regularly. I've already retired once, after a 20 year career in the U.S. Air Force. But then I was 38, still flexible, with loads of years looming ahead of me (all things considered). And so, my attention was caught by Kenneth Boa, author, speaker, and president of Reflections Ministries, Omnibus Media Ministries, and Trinity House Publishers, and Jenny Abel, editor and writer. They teamed up to put together a new 256-page paperback, "Recalibrate Your Life: Navigating Transitions with Purpose and Hope". And it was that title the caught my attention. It's not a book about retirement, but life transitions. Those times of change and transition in life, and our response to them, all of which have a dramatic impact on the course of our journey and how we progress through life (3). This is a volume meant for anyone at any transitional moment in life. Score 1 for the authors!

The book opens up into three basic sections on perspective, purpose, and then practice. The authors carefully and thoughtfully take readers through what recalibration means, and how there are two sets of moments to reassess and revamp. One is chronos times, which are scheduled moments planned for. Then there are kairos periods, which are episodes in life that lend themselves to rethinking and reorienting. The idea is not to coast, or float with the stream, but to be intentional. "Most of us put off the important in favor of the urgent, and our lives are constantly harried as a result" (11).

The authors also have listed out "tools," or waypoints on the trek. There are eighteen of them that are worked out in the book, and several resources for a reader to return to and guide them through seasons of recalibration. This is the kind of book I could have used when I retired from the military at 38, and it is clearly useful in these later years of my life. "Our calling from God is lifelong; it transcends our roles and seasons of life. We never retire from our vocation" (78).

The book is packed with workable advice and counsel that makes it quite useable. But, for me, what I found the most delightful is that this is not a fellow Boomer talking into a Boomer echo-chamber. It's a team of authors from two different generational segments working together, showing how each tool and every concept fits, no matter what stage of life one is in. I'm getting pretty fed up with the socially constructed generational divides and sass that pit us against one another. That made this book stand out even brighter to me - all of us, at every stage, need to think through and work through this manual. There's no "Snowflake!" or "Okay, Boomer" tension, but biblical teamwork. Score 2 for the authors!

My only disappointment with the book is that the authors keep referencing a specific website created with this book title, to get support materials. When I repeatedly typed in that website, it wasn't there. In the end I had to do a little sleuthing and go to another website by Boa to find the extra resources.

If you're reading this review, you have likely just come out of a transition moment, are in one, or about to enter one. So, this book is just for you! Remember, whatever season of life you're in, High School or College graduate, career change, marriage, newborn, the later years of your career, or retirement, this book is talking to you (not at you) and you will appreciate just about every suggestion the authors hand you and work out. I happily recommend the book.

My thanks to IVP. I asked for a review copy of the book and they quickly sent it. They made no demands on me. None of my family was held hostage. And no bribes were given. Therefore, this evaluation is freely made by me, and freely given to you.