Millard Fuller is the founder of Habitat for Humanity. In business he became a millionaire by the age 29, in the 1970s. As his business prospered, his health integrity, and marriage suffered, prompting him to reevaluate his priorities and direction. The Fullers decided to sell everything they owned, give the money to the poor, and find a new focus for their lives. In 1976 they founded Habitat for Humanity.
In an interview Bob Buford asked him,
“Millard, have you ever heard about this thing called retirement?”
“Sure, I have,” he said with a laugh. “I remember the words of Jesus, who said, “Take up your cross until you’re sixty-five, then lay it down, then take up your fishing pole and move to Florida!”
“That’s great!” I said, laughing with him. “But seriously, what do you think about when you hear that word?”
“Bob,” he said, “I haven’t found the concept of retirement in the Bible. There was, however, one guy who found his barns full, and he tore them down in order to build bigger barns. But something bad happened to him. What happened to all of his stuff then? Well, my understanding of Scripture is that all of us are on this earth by the grace of God. We had nothing to do with it; one day we just looked in the mirror and there we were? That’s God’s gift, but what we do with that gift is up to us.”
“I remember a boy in my high school,” he continued, “who was one of the most naturally gifted athletes I’ve ever known. But he drank alcohol, smoked cigarettes, and didn’t exercise, and his God-given ability was squandered. It was sad. I still remember thinking, How can you just waste your God-given abilities that way? God has given me certain talents, and I think it’s incumbent on me to use them to the best of my ability, for as long as I’m able.”
I said, “You’d think retirement would be in the Bible if God had thought it was important, wouldn’t you?”
“Yes, I agree,” he responded, “It’s pretty clear that when God calls somebody, it’s for the duration: You’re called to be faithful in that calling for as long as you’re able. Now I do think there’s justification for changing course at various times in your life. If I live a full life, into my seventies or eighties, there will come a time when I’m not able to travel to seven states and eight cities in a week. But I can fulfill God’s call in other ways, and I hope that when the time comes I will have the wisdom to know how to make that shift to serve in other ways.”
“Do you have any idea how many volunteers you mobilized to work with Habitat each year?” I asked.
“Hundreds of thousands,” he said, “if not millions.”
“Do you think they’re better off for having volunteered? And if so, how?”
“Anyone who has ever been involved in this work will tell you that they’ve been blessed,” Millard replied. “Our most famous volunteers are former president Jimmy Carter and his wife Rosalyn, and I’ve heard them say many times that they have been blessed by there twenty years of work in this ministry. I think blessing means making a difference in someone else’s life. It’s seeing the tears in the eyes of those you’ve helped, feeling the hug of a new homeowner, or seeing the joy in the eyes of a child who will have his or her own room for the very first time.”
Bigger barns. A life of fishing and golfing every day. How are you using what has been given to you, only by the grace of God? *Finishing Well, by Bob Buford
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