What are your plans?
Ever since I started to inform people of my once-looming-but-now-a-reality retirement, I’ve heard various forms of that question.
What’s next? What are you going to do with your time?
I even received an awesome “congratulatory” card from my brother-in-law Mike Guerrero that humorously addressed the dilemma this chapter evokes. Here it is:
Yes, I came into my retirement with specific plans. Leading up to it, I’ve often reflected on the question – what will I do – as well as the follow up – why will I do it? Both are the focus of our thoughts in this opening of the Blue Spigot.
But before we begin, I need to both explain something and inform you of something.
First of all, I am using my imagination in this post as a literary tool. If you put on your pretend hat like I’ve done, my writing will make sense. At least I hope so. If you insist on being literal, that’s fine, but you may miss the larger point.
Also, understand this: the why matters more than the what.
What will I do?
I will summarize my answer by telling you where I now “reside”, figuratively speaking. I live in the same house, in the same city, but have entered into a new dimension.
As of my first day of retirement, December 21, 2024, you could say that I joined leisure world, a fictional community of my imagination. It’s not real, but to be careful I have not capitalized the first letters. But back in the late 1990’s, my mom did live at a senior retirement community called Rossmoor/Leisure World, from which I have shamelessly pilfered the name.
After just two weeks into this new reality I’m learning a new vocabulary, one that reflects a more relaxed, non-pressured pace of living.
Sara and Ryan flew out from Chicago for Christmas. All week I was able to say tell me more. On their previous visits, I frequently had to apologize to them and say sorry, I have to get back to work.
Linda asked if I wanted to go for a midweek, midday walk. I enthusiastically replied yes, a big change from having to say no due to being clocked in for work.
Next week Linda will resume her twice-a-month, three-night stint as resident Grandma with Ben’s family. During her absence I was planning to write, as well as to read materials from the Epilepsy Foundation, for whom I will soon be volunteering. But she reminded me that Cooper’s tenth birthday is on Tuesday. I quickly shifted gears, saying sure, I’ll come too, and then followed that up by asking Ben and Ashley: I’ve got time; is there anything you need Grandpa to do around your house?
A friend at church invited me to play golf sometime soon, and two more expressed a desire to get together for coffee. Let’s do it!
No longer being handcuffed by an obligation to my employer is awesome. In a sense, it feels like my times are my own. But that’s where I have to check myself. They’re not. My times do not belong solely to me.
You see, leisure world has a parent company that sets the operating principles and expectations of my actions, speech, time, and energy. I call it covenant living, again using non-capital letters.
I know, I know. I am an ordained Pastor in the Evangelical Covenant Church, known as “The Covenant” for short. And yes, Covenant Living really is a thing, an excellent and thriving consortium of life-care communities, a ministry of my denomination. My mom and her three sisters were residents for many years leading up to their deaths. My mother-in-law Elaine has lived in the one in San Diego since 2018.
Are you tracking with me so far?
What is covenant living that it has such a hold over my days? When I became a follower of Jesus, I entered into a covenant, a relational agreement with God that I have agreed to live under. I committed to a lifelong process of learning how to be faithful – trusting in God’s wisdom more, and in mine less. God is always faithful to his end of the deal*, which includes bearing with me as I struggle and stumble along, and he’s promised to walk beside me to the finish line.
If you profess to follow Jesus, you are also in that same covenant living relationship. That means your life, like mine, has operating principles that were lived out by Jesus. He calls us to pattern our life after his. Our actions, speech, time, abilities and energy are all part of that covenant living relationship.
I hope you’ll see this as a helpful and imaginative way to make a point. And that point is clear: the only thing that changed when I retired is the people with whom I have the opportunity to interact. It doesn’t matter whether I am in the paycheck-earning days or have transitioned from that into retirement.
Why will I do it?
The why matters more than the what. The motive and desires behind our words and our deeds are more important than the map we plan to follow. We do well to look inward and analyze what’s driving our decisions.
On July 2, 1999, less than two months before the most significant series of events in my life, I set the overall direction of my life, after decades of drifting along with little resolve other than continuing to be a believer, husband, father, son, and pastor.
I didn’t just set my course. I set my heart to honor God’s name and my covenant relationship with him, using a specific passage of scripture as my guide. This resulted in a personal mission statement, marked by four resolutions to…
Walk with God.
Walk in God’s ways.
Help others to walk in God’s ways.
Be one of God’s messengers.
In every job I’ve had and in every relational role I’ve entered, I have strived to align what I do with these four principles of “covenant living”. And now, as I am retired, nothing has changed. There is no portion of life and leisure that falls outside his presence, guidance, and involvement.
As retirement loomed, the fourth dimension caused me to pause. It formally withdraws me from an official role as one of God’s messengers: Pastor or Chaplain. As Solomon instructs us, there is a time to speak and a time to be silent. (Eccelesiastes 3:7). For now, I sense that my writing is relevant, and I occasionally bring the sermon during worship with our local congregation. But at some point, I will sense it’s time to be quiet and, to quote Parker Palmer in the title of his book, “Let My Life Speak”.
Let’s get practical and candid. With my mission statement guiding me, What will I do in my retirement, and why will I do it?
I will relish the time and opportunities to be more fully present with and helpful to my family, both immediate and extended. Nothing is better.
I will pursue some activities that I consider life-giving and fulfilling, like golf. But that’s not simply for my personal well-being and physical health. I have joined a local golf club as a way of developing authentic relationships. Jesus walked among people and still does; there’s no reason I can’t walk with him and others while I push my cart.
Under the umbrella of the Epilepsy Foundation, I will seek opportunities to speak to schools and service clubs to inform, educate, and advocate for change. Our family has been impacted for decades by epilepsy, a misunderstood and debilitating neurological condition. I know God cares about that: He upholds the cause of the oppressed… and lifts up those who are bowed down**. Therefore, so do I, and I intend to use my gifts to assist.
Why am I sharing all this in the Blue Spigot? Maybe it will prompt you to compose your own mission statement, or at least to look inward to honestly understand your motives and desires, be they humble or prideful.
Or, to quote Barbara Brown Taylor, we do well to live with a purpose.
‘Whatever our jobs in the world happen to be’, as Martin Luther said, ‘our mutual vocation is to love God and neighbor’. With Luther’s encouragement, I went on to use saddles on spotted ponies, communion bread and wine, newspaper stories, bouquets of flowers delivered to nursing homes, suppers cooked for friends, checks from my checkbook, and green ink on student essays as purposeful means of engaging my vocation. Every one of these tools gave me ample opportunity to choose kindness over meanness. Every one of them offered me the chance to recognize the divine in human form, inviting me out of myself long enough to engage someone whose fears, wants, loves, and needs were at least as important as my own. Of course, they also gave me ample opportunity to act like a jerk, missing my purpose by a mile. Yet even this turned out to be helpful, since recognizing my jerkdom is how I remember that is not how I want to be. (An Altar in the Earth, p. 110-111)
"Jerkdom" – that’s a word to which I can relate, and my family can say amen. Adopting a mission statement doesn’t automatically come with a halo. But setting one’s heart is better than drifting without a purpose.
Jimmy Carter died recently. Whatever you think of his governmental vocations, his lifelong passion to live for Jesus is commendable. Here’s one of his best quotes: “My faith demands - this is not optional - my faith demands that I do whatever I can, wherever I can, whenever I can, for as long as I can with whatever I have to try to make a difference.”
Benediction of Blessing:
May you love the life God has given you, delighting in both the work you have been called to and the leisure activities you find enriching.
May you live with a singular purpose to love God and love your neighbor.
May you be known for your desire to live with and for Jesus in this life.
* As God has said, my unfailing love for your will not be shaken. (Isaiah 54:10)
** Psalm 146:7-8
Credits:
Greeting Card: @Cath Tate, “Live off my savings”, CTF992.
Wildhawk Players Association, Wildhawk Golf Club, Sacramento, CA
. . . . . .
You can have the Blue Spigot delivered directly to your email address by subscribing on the contact page, where you can also comment or ask questions.
All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version, NIV. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. TM
Comentários