The thought first struck me while we were living in Africa, Uganda to be precise. Rather late in our professional careers, we had gone there, under a rather “impossible to refuse” calling by God, to build an elementary school in a small village. I was living out a decades long dream to be a missionary in Africa and all my experiences were viewed through that lens of “at last.” My husband’s experience was not quite the same – he viewed his days through “please don’t let me hit someone on the road” as we were up and down dicey dirt paths coming and going to the village, exploring the countryside or heading into Kampala. It was common to come across children as young as 2 or 3, unaccompanied, meandering down even the paved road to Kampala. We lived in the midst of a region decimated by AIDS and there were too many orphaned children living in huts with too many grandchildren under the not so watchful eye of an elderly grandmother who had lost all of her children to AIDS. We have no idea how they all found their way home in the evening and wondered if they all did.
Our time in Uganda was cut short for a variety of reasons and when we headed home I had a multitude of conflicting thoughts – sad to leave Africa, happy to be home with family, sad to leave the endearing Ugandan people, happy to not have to deal with enormous cultural differences that often impeded progress, happy to have completed the school construction, sad to not be there to watch it grow and succeed. But one thought that has not left my mind in 15 years is this – WHAT A WAY TO SPEND RETIREMENT! Why isn’t everyone my age fortunate enough to do something this exciting and adventurous in God’s Kingdom work? Why isn’t everyone my age out serving and doing, sharing and building, loving and caring?
We came home to the mundane, after the adventurous life in Africa. More teaching and coaching for us at another Christian school where we were at least hoping to impact some young, impressionable lives, but nothing in comparison to the heady work of missions – where you feel alive every day because there is something big and bold to accomplish among the huts of weary grandmothers and unattended children…not to mention building a school with textbooks and teachers in a remote tiny village that barely knew what education was.
But I managed 4 years in the classroom before another “impossible to refuse” call came through on a regular basis while I was standing in front of Spanish students, conjugating verbs and memorizing the months of the year. I kept hearing “Go”, sometimes gently and sometimes pounding in my head. Through a set of ongoing circumstances over those 4 years, arranged in somewhat of an orderly fashion, I had come into contact with a missions agency who headquartered close to both the school and our home. After 6 months of conversation and interviews, I found myself on the staff with a group of people who had a heart for the lost.
God definitely put me in the right place, because while I thought I would be headed to India or Indonesia where my knowledge of Spanish and French meant nothing, my agency had made the decision to pursue the lost in Europe and my first trip surprised me by being to France. 11 years later, I’m still going, under a new banner and different work, but Europe still. And all these years I have kept hearing in my head – WHAT A WAY TO SPEND RETIREMENT!
And I’ve watched the normal pursuit of filling up retirement days with lots of activities, hobbies and trips…all healthy and enjoyable. If you have grandchildren, we know they bring us great joy… and if you live close by, probably lots of activity. But for most of us, we’re not in the parent role anymore and while family will always come first for me, my days are not totally occupied with babysitting, music programs, athletic events and family vacations. We make our best effort to fully and joyfully live out these days. But is it all there is?
I’m certain we are all aware that the word “retirement” does not find a place in the 66 books of the Bible, a fact I find both motivating and comforting. God has given us things to do to build His Kingdom on earth; we all have some calling on our lives. The list is endless, ranging from ministering to our own families with the love of Christ as we plant Jesus deep in their hearts – to flying to remote places in the world where the culture has never had the chance to hear the Gospel. We just need to listen to what it is and be obedient – two oddly very difficult things for us to do when we have primed ourselves for the time of our lives during retirement. Give up our time to serve God is not commonly on people’s retirement bucket list, but it is, indeed, the most rewarding, captivating, adventurous, thrilling way to finish our days here on earth.
Uganda gave me a new perspective. I came home asking “why doesn’t everyone do something like this, at least for a little bit of their retirement?” So while we can fill our retirement days with busy schedules with all the things we’ve looked forward to doing, think how the world could change for the good with the gifts we have to give – the influence of years of wisdom, a spirit of healthy collaboration with no need to competitively climb the corporate ladder, freedom from so many of the world’s imposed preoccupations of status and standing, a mind that can focus on purpose and productivity for God’s Kingdom instead of financial reward. In our retirement, we are set free to serve and to give away our time for the most meaningful tasks in life – whatever God calls us to do.
Don’t waste your retirement – turn it over to God and ask him to lay out the path. You’ll still find you have time to travel and play…and we don’t all have to go live in a refugee camp in Sudan (which is always on my heart), and some of us will have the opportunity to sip cafe au lait and munch a croissant every morning in France, some of us will find our work right where we are, in our family, at our church, in our community, with our friends – but DO SOMETHING! We are an army, better equipped mentally, even though moving toward lagging physically, here to serve the Lord until he takes us home. Open your Bibles, open your hearts, open your eyes and see how God can use you to bless the nations. Jump in the middle of this big adventure and see where you land.
Don't Waste Your Retirement 