Don't Waste Your Retirement

Over the holidays, I had time to do things I normally don’t have time to do – relax, do some research, read articles and books I don’t usually have time for, straighten our study and desk.  In the midst of all of that, I came across 2 things that I grabbed hold of and spent some time on.

One was an article from the website “Desiring God” – a John Piper’ ministry.  A posted list of “10 Questions for a New Year” caught my eye and I pulled it up.  Next thing I knew, I was so absorbed and impressed by the questions that I sent it on to our family and friends, then typed up each question to print up so I could ponder and possibly answer as I went through 2025 with a focus on “really thinking” through my thoughts, words, priorities and actions of faith.

The second article was from our oldest son in 2005 entitled “The Lost Art of Thinking.”  A random printed page from that long ago showed up on my desk as I shuffled through stacks to straighten.  The author of the article challenges believers to take a good, hard look at their lives and see if they are actually living out with their actions and decisions what they truly believe.  It’s captivating, and once again I sent it on to our family for them to review in the midst of their incredibly busy schedules, unlike me who can manipulate a day to give me almost any amount of time I want to do what I want.

As I pondered the questions in these articles, I couldn’t ignore the words that have been echoing in my head for quite some time – “fueling faith” – and what that means.  How can we become people of faith unless we fuel ourselves – and what does that fuel look like?  Would these questions bring direction to a pursuit of living out my faith in more meaningful ways?

I’m also reading a book by John Mark Comer entitled Walking the Way.  As you can imagine, it is a book designed to lay out a path for us to be disciples of Jesus in our everyday lives.  Sounds simple enough (and it is) but with all the layers of living we have piled on top of that simplicity, we have made it much harder than it should be.  Comer advocates for big chunks of quiet, contemplative time so we can know God.  Guess what we have in retirement?  Big chunks of quiet, contemplative time so we can know God.

He also advocates that this stage of life is our best because we have become “more” of who God intended us to be through the years of experience.  He says we are either a more delightful version of our younger selves (by God’s grace) or we have devolved into an uglier version of ourselves by ignoring God’s grace in our lives.  That in itself is something to contemplate.

I think by this stage of life we all know the things we need to do to become and remain a disciple of Jesus – read the Word, study the Word, pray, be a part of a believing community, worship, share the gospel with others, read encouraging and mobilizing books.  We have the time to do all of these in our retirement, so what’s stopping us?

In the next several blog posts, I will share some of these questions with you for your personal contemplation – and perhaps personal call to action.

Here are 2 of my favorites:

1. What’s one thing you can do this year to increase your enjoyment of God?
2. What’s the single biggest time-waster in your life and how can you redeem the time?

Let’s make 2025 a year we fuel our faith by actually being attentive to living our days as a follower of Jesus, how we reflect his glory and love to others, and what improvements we can make to be sure others know the Savior.