Second Half Achievers

John Heide serves as a missionary to those in the Second Half of Life. Along with his wife Judy, they travel in full time ministry to churches across America.
His new book, “Finishing Life Strong…Issues and Inspiration for those in the Second Half of Life” is a 10 topic study guide for those journeying (or soon to be) in their second half! From, finding purpose in the Second Half of Life, Dealing with Depression, Raising Grandchildren (over 6 million children are being raised by their grandparents today), to Finding Love the Second time around, the book addresses relevant topics for today’s adults. The author can be reached at: johnheide2002@yahoo.com or, www.50alive.com The book is available at Amazon.com

Today, over 140,000 Americans are 100 years of age or older and people are asking, “what can I do at my age?” Satchel Paige became a major league pitcher when we was forty two years old and pitched until he was 60. Colonel Sanders started Kentucky Fried Chicken when he was 65. Ronald Reagan became president at 69, and Grandma Moses picked up a paint brush for the first time at age 75 and painted over 1500 paintings, several of which she painted after reaching 100 years of age. Moses led the children out of Egypt when he was 80 years of age and don’t let me scare the reader but Abraham became a father at 100 years of age (his wife was a young 90 years old!).

It can be an exciting time in life when you reach the Second Half. John Wooden the famed UCLA basketball coach would tell his team at halftime, “As long as there is a Second half we can win this game….they usually did! In the book of Job chapter 42:12 the Bible reads “God blessed the Second Half of Job’s life more than the first!” Each of us can have hope that there is a plan for ALL of life. Discovering, developing, and deploying that plan can bring great satisfaction and make the Second Half of life significant for time and eternity!
Bill was 73 years old and wrote out a “game plan” for the next 20 years of his life. He went back to college, learned a foreign language, learned to play the piano and tackled the computer! Bill was into living, not dying! From his youth Jim had always wanted to be a Doctor. However, as a young married man with small children he had to settle for another career. Later in life at age 68 Jim had just retired but still felt as though God wanted him to be in the medical field. He quickly counted that if it took 12 years in medical school that he would be 80 years old and no hospital would let him near their place unless he was a patient! So, Jim settled for something less, in 3 short years he became a registered nurse and was taking medical trips as a missionary to help people around the world.
Perhaps, your Second Half is just waiting for you to discover that you can, “Finish Life Strong!”
As another baseball great Yogi Berra once said “It ain’t over til it’s over!”