Books

Second-half Calling

Former TCW editor asks women to seek purpose after kids leave home.

What’s next for women after bodies slow and children leave? Dale Hanson Bourke offers wise, compelling answers. Using the biblical story of the widow Naomi as a framework, Bourke—a former editor of Today’s Christian Woman magazine and one-time publisher of Religion News Service—leads women over 40 into the hard, exciting process of deciding what really counts. And then what? Step humbly into a meaningful present by putting God first, trusting that his call “from others to him” yields for midlife women a power and purpose “beyond anything we have experienced.”

SECOND CALLING:Finding Passionand Purposefor the Restof Your Lifeby Dale Hanson BourkeIntegrity Publishers221 pp.; $18.99

That’s a big promise. But Bourke, after a hectic, jet-setting corporate life, has become an AIDS activist who values friendships and—at age 50—finished her first 5k race. Her candid journey offers an appealing, powerful blueprint for midlife.

Or, as she says: “I am called to something so much greater than I can imagine that I pray for the courage to face the adventure God has for me in the second half of my life.”

Copyright © 2006 Christianity Today. Click for reprint information.

Related Elsewhere:

Second Calling is available from Christianbook.com and other book retailers.

Our sister publication MomSense interviewed Dale Hanson Bourke.

More information about the book is available from Integrity Publishers.

Also in this issue

The CT archives are a rich treasure of biblical wisdom and insight from our past. Some things we would say differently today, and some stances we've changed. But overall, we're amazed at how relevant so much of this content is. We trust that you'll find it a helpful resource.

Cover Story

Hope in the Heart of Darkness

Do It for the Children

The Lure of Theocracy

Q+A: Michael Cromartie

Free Speech Fiasco

More than Logic

Pro-life Feminists

Cutting Deeper

Grand Illusions

Latter-day Complaints

Friday Night Fish Fry

Beyond Azusa Street

Lost Missions

What's Right About Patriotism

Hide Your Bible

Crowded Out

Belgrade Curve

Health Care, Everyone?

From Rape to Rebuilding

News

Passages

Wire Story

Sky's the Limit

Excerpt

'Jesus Mean and Wild: The Unexpected Love of an Untamable God'

The Faith of Our Founders

Social Justice Surprise

Experiencing Life at the Margins

Born Again and Again

News

Go Figure

Gospel Work in Time of War

Glimpses of God in Africa

News

Quotation Marks

Summer

Editorial

Beyond Yellow Ribbons

Editorial

Sex Isn't a Spectator Sport

Reforming Wayward Reformers

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