Melissa and I are about to conclude our second retirement and reenter the work force. Melissa is now enjoying her new job as Guest Services Manager at the Highland Lake Inn in Flat Rock, NC and I just completed my second interview with UPM Raflatac, a label stock manufacturer in Mills River, NC. Both jobs are local and offer the income and benefits we will need to survive this economy.
Retirement is a wonderful, perpetual vacation, but too costly for us to sustain. The alternative is to live just above the poverty line and subsist on a lower standard of living. I am not a penny pincher and love life too much to stay at home all the time. Some will say I made bad decisions in life, but I have no regrets. Our lives are renewed day by day and I have always believed in renewal and not retirement.
I agree the best things in life are free and I know God supplies all my needs, but I have yet to find the word "retirement" in the Bible. God supplies our needs through opportunities which we must receive by faith.
Consider these five statistics:
•The average retirement account balance for those nearing 65 is only $12,000. (National Institute on Retirement Security)
•40% of baby boomers now plan to work until they die. (AARP)
•36% of Americans say they don’t contribute anything at all to their savings. (CNBC)
•87% of adults say they are not confident about having money for a comfortable retirement. (Lifehappens.org)
•The expected retirement age is up to 67 from age 63. (Zero Hedge)
There will always be work to do for mankind. We are to labor by the sweat of our brow until we return to dust. It is part of the curse for sin that began in the garden of Eden (Genesis 3:19). The blessing is to do work you enjoy and have the talents to do well.
Every station in life, every job, every profession is a calling from God. He gives unique talents and opportunities to each of His children and places them into an arena for Christian service. I believe this to be true.
Looking back, some of my greatest opportunities and influence in life were not in church, but on the job. Interaction with other people, ordained by God, so that He might touch their lives in a special way. A man once told me it would be wrong for me to go into "full-time" ministry, leaving my job behind, because someone like him would never have met someone like me. That was a humbling and eye-opening conversation.
Christians don't need to hide behind the four walls of a church waiting for someone new to come in, but they are called to go out into all the world and demonstrate the good news. Jesus made disciples by inviting them to "Come and See." They followed Him, "hanging out" with him, talking, eating, travelling with Him. They found something powerful and wonderful living inside of Him. He was not a hypocrite, acting one way in church and another way at home. He was the same all the time.
People are looking for the reality of God in a living person. Someone who is "good news" and not "bad news." Someone whose presence brings a breath of fresh air, filled with laughter, love and peace. They don't want a condemning, judgemental person who hates their life and everybody in it.
Well, I guess I have gotten too "preachy" in this blog. Something I don't want to do. That is for better men than me. But, take heart, the future is going to be bright. It will be filled with the brightness of our Lord's coming. Then the "government will be upon His shoulders" and everything will be right in this world.
"Even so, come quickly Lord Jesus."
