Contemplating our retirement years

Have we, yet, thought about our retirement years, thought about what we'll do? Are we making plans for the time of freedom and pleasure we may feel we've missed, or do we fear we'll no longer be needed when we close those company doors for the last time? We wonder what we'll be able to tell others that we're doing now. If we've placed too much emphases on our title at work--that of teacher, attorney, stay-home mom, or another, we may have thought that our personhood depended on our job. An identity crises raises its ugly head.

"Hi Ellen," I heard as I exited my car, parked on the church lot. The greeting came from a friend, also attending the same service. We chatted, as we walked inside. I had not seen Mary for a while and wanted to catch up on her life. She had retired from teaching, since I saw her last. "So, what are you doing, now," I asked? "Nothing," said Mary, "just staying home." She made no apologies for saying, "just staying at home." She went on to tell me that she had taken care of her mother, who had since died, and was helping out other family members. She seemed very content and said that she liked being retired from teaching. I was greatly impressed that she did not feel the need to seek my admiration by telling me all the things she was now doing. We often think we must help within an organization, get another job, or anything else, that might make us feel valuable to ourselves and to others. It's certainly a notable and useful gesture when we use our gifts, but we want to perform the actions for genuinely charitable reasons and our happiness, rather than to impress.

There are often too many emotions involved, to describe. In questioning our retirement years, we sometimes ask ourselves, "Who will I be, from now on"? No one knows, for sure, until he experiences his/her new way of life--that time away from when he/she had to appear at work every day, on schedule.

We may rush into volunteering, in an attempt to fulfill our minds and satisfy the void, we might feel. Other activities, too, can raise our sense of value in ourselves. We needn't worry, but plan for those years, beforehand. We can make those years the golden years.

Our years, after we stop reporting to a job every day, can be a blessing, a joy and a time to reflect. We can fill our time with what we feel is important to us, now. Retirement doesn't mean that we, necessarily quit working, even though the type of contributions we make may change. We can, now, help others, including our immediate family and other relatives and friends. We can still maintain, and use skills that can be useful to society.

Nowhere in Scripture does it mention a time in which we fill all our time pursuing pleasure, alone. We need a goal that still suits us, although the type of work we do will usually be different. Retirement is not a Biblical concept; it is a cultural one. The word retire is mentioned one time in the Bible. Numbers 8:23-26 said to Moses, "This applies to the Levites: Men twenty-five years old or more shall come to take part in the work at the tent of meeting, but at the age of fifty they must retire from their regular service and work no longer." The men could continue helping at the tent of meeting but they were assigned different responsibilities. They were not pulled from doing any work, their work simply changed.

People are living much longer today than in yesteryear and retirement is different. It is much longer, and people are filling their time with more activities that bring them fulfillment, pleasure and a feeling of usefulness. We can do things now, that we did not have the time for, while working. We, just, have to choose how we want to spend our later years. "Man was not meant to quit working entirely, but to use his/her gifts in different ways." (CEP Professional, Is Retirement Biblical)