Retirement Planning
I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. (2 Timothy 4:7)
This past week I was contacted by a financial planner. I don't often take calls with these types of advisors but I felt the LORD encourage me to do so. The call was quick and professional, nothing out of the ordinary. One of the topics that came up was retirement planning. I admitted to him on the phone I don't often think about retirement because I'm not at a stage in life where people normally call it quits (unless they are a professional athlete). But it did spark some thought in me about what retirement for me could look like. God willing, would I retire to the beach? To the country? I suppose a lot of people that know me well might think I'd want to end up on a lake, spending my final years fishing/boating.
While it's true that one day, maybe 25-30 years from now, I hope to have accumulated enough resources to be able to leave my full-time professional career, the Bible would argue that if I'm still here, my work is far from done. You see, as a follower of Jesus I understand that my professional career is merely one of the many channels the LORD has given me to fulfill the actual work God has willed for me to do. The work I'm talking about is multiplication. Jesus created disciples so His disciples would create more disciples and so on. In fact, the first commandment God gave to man and woman when He created them is to be fruitful and multiply (Genesis 9:7). And the last commandment Jesus gave to His disciples is to go out into the world and make more disciples - the Great Commission (Matthew 28:19-20).
While retirement from one's professional career might make sense, it really doesn't make much sense for a follower of Jesus to retire from their part in the Great Commission. Rather, as we age, mature, and gain more experience it would actually make more sense to become more involved! Consider what Paul writes in one of his letters to the Corinthian church on how we must live our lives for Christ like we are in a race.
Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. (1 Corinthians 9:24)
Think about the races you've watched on TV or maybe even participated in yourself. Do the participants slow down and take the last lap easy? No, the final lap is when the afterburners come on! In the picture above, you see a sprinter diving towards the finish line. He doesn't hold anything back and is willing to sacrifice his body and safety so he can win the race. If you're a follower of Jesus, ask yourself, "Am I running my race like this?" I know that as we get older our bodies change, which can make it more difficult to do some of the things we were able to do while we were younger. But God doesn't provide any excuses for us pulling away from ministry.
Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. (Galatians 6:9)
I used to serve as a high school mentor and while I felt like being in my 20's made it easier to relate well to the students in my group, I also saw how valuable it was having older, more experienced brothers and sisters in these mentorship roles. For those who are older, God may want to use you as a mentor or coach to younger brothers/sisters. He may also have other things planned for you, we cannot limit God in how He may want to use us. But regardless of our age, as followers of Christ we must always be heavenly-minded and ensure we are using whatever God has gifted us with to spread the gospel and build the kingdom. And if you're at a point in life where your age makes it's difficult to stay as involved or "run" even harder, as long as you're willing and obedient to God, He can make a way for you like He did for Moses and Israel. In this next passage from the Bible, Moses was well advanced in age, but God was still using him to lead Israel in battle.
So Joshua fought the Amalekites as Moses had ordered, and Moses, Aaron and Hur went to the top of the hill. As long as Moses held up his hands, the Israelites were winning, but whenever he lowered his hands, the Amalekites were winning. When Moses’ hands grew tired, they took a stone and put it under him and he sat on it. Aaron and Hur held his hands up—one on one side, one on the other—so that his hands remained steady till sunset. So Joshua overcame the Amalekite army with the sword. (Exodus 17:10-13)
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