There are many areas in which the world influences the Christian's way of thinking and one is in the area of retirement. We hear about freedom 55 and that you deserve the time etc. but what does the Bible say? Now before I get too high and mighty I did retire at 55 and I have been busy ever since. Much of my time today is taken with teaching an adult Bible class and working for Bibles for Missions. Before that I did spend a year in the Philippines with my wife and daughter.
My thinking was changed about 11 years ago when I attended Missions Fest 2000 in Winnipeg Manitoba. Two speakers made an impact on my thinking about retirement. One was John Piper who with the Bible in one hand he read an article from Readers Digest that talked about a couple who took early retirement so they could travel around the world in their RV and play softball and gather sea shells. He compared that to the Apostle Paul who burned with passion for the Gospel even up to the time of his death. He showed us clearly that retirement is not in the Bible.
The other speaker was Ron Pearce who I later got to know and he visited us in our home in Chatham. He had a passion for missions that drove him every waking moment.
So what should be the Christian's attitude toward retirement? Should we view it as a time when we can rest on the fruits of our labours or is it a time when we can use the time in an uninhibited way to serve our God? At the moment God has blessed my wife and I with health that we can serve Him.
We need to view retirement as a time that we can serve our God without the hindrances of making a living. I know that God blessed me that way and it is my desire to continue to serve Him.
2 comments:
A thought-provoking question, Joe. As I see it, serving God has nothing to do with age - whether it's childhood, youth, adulthood or the 'senior years'. It's a lifetime of 'seeking first the kingdom of God...' James too, cautions us to be people who will "Redeem the time.." I'm glad the scriptures aren't otherwise 'prescriptive' lest we judge and overlay our own prescription about how others should or shouldn't use their time whether in retirement or not. Perhaps William Booth summed it up best: "There's no discharge in this war!"
I know that s Erving God has nothing to do with age but the world tells us that retirement is time we have earned to do what we want. This so unbiblical.
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