LIVING WITH PURPOSE
WHEN YOU REACH YOUR RETIREMENT GOAL, THEN WHAT?
— THE AMERICAN RETIREMENT —
"The old model for those over 60 was pretty grim. After forty years of work followed by a period of aimless retirement, then death soon after. Even though you may have saved for a 20-30 year vacation (the typical idea of retirement), the average person dies between two and seven years after retirement. It’s often because they’ve lost their purpose in life. Or maybe they never found it."*
*Finishing Well, Bob Buford – pg 124 a quote from Howard Hendricks.
“You grow up somewhere, go to school somewhere, form your own family, and go to work somewhere. Then you retire and you____.”* When this statement was presented to different groups many would finish the sentence “then you retire and you die.”
*Finishing Well, Bob Buford – pg xiii
There’s got to be more to life than this! There is!!
Let’s get real. We skirt around the issues and follow people that have a retirement life that looks appealing, but often the reality is they are unfulfilled and miserable.
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We go through life in search for what the world tells us and what we believe is success and accomplishment. But only to find out that it leaves us empty. Once we have accomplished what we set out to, we must move on to some other selfish endeavor in search for fulfillment. Maybe that next endeavor is retirement!
— CATCHING THE RABBIT —
Author and American Philosopher, Dallas Willard, said “One of my favorite stories, is about the dog races in Florida. They train these dogs to chase an electric rabbit, and one night the rabbit broke down and the dogs caught it. But they didn’t know what to do with it. They were just leaping around, yelping and biting one another totally confused about what was happening. I think that’s a picture of what happens to all sorts of people who catch the rabbit in their life. Whether it’s wealth or fame or beauty or a bigger house, or whatever, the prize isn’t what they thought it would be. And when they finally get it, they don’t know what to do with their lives. This is huge factor in finishing badly. People need a rabbit that won’t break down. But that’s not something the superficial values of this world can really give them.”
Is "retirement" your rabbit? What do you do when you catch it?
Retirement as an end goal will bring disappointment.
— REFOCUS: EYES OFF THE RABBIT —
The striving of worldly success centers around ourselves.
It can never provide the satisfaction and fulfillment that as humans desire. Enthralled in worldly success also comes at great cost; marriages, time away from children, wasted money chasing things that rust, and our precious time.
So many of us go through life seeking success. What we believe to be success and what the world tells us is success leads us to misery.
“How can I leave a lasting impact?”
As a human being what we for is significance. You want to make a difference in this world. Striving to live a life of significance often points back to ourselves. It points to looking at what we can do to make us feel better about ourselves. We must seek significance in Christ and only Christ.
Repurpose your life for significance in the eyes of our Lord. Make your focus on Him, especially in your retirement years.
You have so much to offer this world when you allow Christ to work through you. Don’t waste your life! The years after 60 may be your best and most fulfilling yet!
God used men and women to do great things in their later years.
— LET'S GET REAL —
Bottom Line?
It's best said by John Piper...
What a tragedy that in America, that billions of dollars are invested every year to get people my age to waste the rest of our lives. It's called retirement!
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You've worked for it. Now enjoy it! 20 years of play, leisure, ease, while the world uncared for medically, uneducated, filthy water, poverty stricken, unevangelized, sinks under the weight of healthy 65 year old people playing bridge, shuffleboard, collecting shells, fishing, golfing their way into the presence of King Jesus.
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And you know what? You're going to join them unless at this stage in your life you make some radical, life changing decision about where your treasure is.
*John Piper, Desiring God
“Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.” Matthew 10:39
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Seek His will for His purpose for your life!