The Big Dream – In the last few decades we have all been obsessed with the Big Dream. That big dream is a fat pension check at retirement with fringe benefits that are frilly and “thrilly.”
At one time a man (or woman) was tickled to get a job with reasonable wages. Today mere striplings will pipe up and ask, “But what Me your retirement benefits?” This may he due to our down-to-earth pragmatism. But it also shows a good deal of horizontalism. We want things now—but good! No pie in the sky, no living by faith, we want to he sure that by the time we are “ripe” for retirement we will be able to golf, fish. travel and play shuffleboard with the snowbirds in Florida. We scheme and dream in our early twenties for the good days when we can “take it easy,” go our own pace and forget about punching that cagey old time clock. Our heads are cocked at an angle, like a chicken drinking water, looking for the day of our reprieve.
Meanwhile we almost “hate” the present with its doldrums and routine schedules. We forget to redeem the time because the days arc evil. We forget . . . or do we? I sincerely hope not. Not if we are redeemed by the blood and are on the road of sanctification, where as John Bunyan states, we catch glimpses of the celestial city.
How‘s Your Health? – That’s the big question. We‘ll assume you have hassled through all these years, punched the time clock with a vengeance day after day. Shut off the alarm clock in disgust morning after morning. But now at least you have reached the fulfillment of your career—the BIG DREAM—your retirement.
Of course today some retire at 57, or 30 years and out. We don‘t all keep our nose to the grindstone till we “come alive at 65.”
Just the same, you have arrived. Did you have a physical checkup lately? Did the Doc give you a clean bill of health? Your hair may be a bit thinner. True, the barber charges you just as much as ever for a haircut, but that may be because he has to use a microscope to find it. But how are your reflexes? Can you still nm around the bases in a ballgame without getting “winded,” or does your breath come in short gasps?
Maybe you’ll begin to realize that all this retirement stuff you’ve been dreaming about all these years isn‘t quite the Bird of Paradise you dreamt it would be. Maybe you would rather be young again and work by the clock. But you have arrived. How is your health now? Because this is important for what I have to say from this paint forward.
Watch out for Barnacles! – We assume you are in the pink of condition. A bit faded and tattered because of the weight of the growing years and the concerns common to all mankind.
Hopefully (if married), you still have your life partner. How is her (or his) health? You know our Big Dream becomes sort of deflated like a pin-pricked balloon when we finally arrive. One of you may have fallen arches, or tired blood, or corns or bunions or worse. But watch out for barnacles! Do you get what I mean? I didn’t quite know what barnacles were till a few months ago when my wife and I made a trip to the state of Washington. There we did some sole fishing in Puget Sound off the Pacific coast. Landing on Hat Island we saw barnacles aplenty. They had attached their glutenous selves to the rock-strewn area all around us. Like pebble-dash ‘gook’ these persistent barnacles clung to each stone with the tenacity of a bulldog. These same barnacles are guilty of fastening themselves to ship bottoms and have to be removed periodically to allow for the ship‘s maximum speed.
So here‘s the picture. We too at retirement can become hogged down with the “barnacles” of too-much-case, laziness, inactivity, eat-more-and-do-less. But this can be damaging physically, mentally, spiritually. The danger of good “going to seed” is a real hazard. Twenty-twenty vision is especially needed at retirement.
Bored Retirees – The Remedy – So you say, “I’m bored to death. I have no hobbies, no interest, just eat and sleep, sleep and eat. What can I do?”
If you are one of those retirees who have no definite hobbies or interests you have a problem. This problem should have been taken care of years ago before you retired. You should have developed other interests—fishing, hunting, building toys. etc. But there is still hope with today‘s opportunities. Check the daily newspaper for Senior Citizens Activities. There is enough to do there to keep you busy for the next 100 years.
However, all that is with reference to the social and the physical. The burden on my heart is this: Do we as retirees use and utilize our energies for the Kingdom of God? Do we give at least a tithe of our remaining years for the cause of Christ who gave His all so that we might have the hope of the resurrection? Do we seek to serve when occasion calls or do we shun and shunt aside all such opportunities as good only for the younger generation?
It is amazing what can be done if we have the will to do it. We know the speed on the highways has been cut down to 55, and we perforce can‘t at our age jump around like a jack-in–the-box—but we, by God’s grace, to use a Chinese phrase, can still make haste slowly. “But to do good and to share forget not; for with such sacrifices God is well pleased” (Heb. 13:16).
Prayer and Care Warriors – But I hear other voices. Above the din of everyday living I hear the moan of the shut-in at home, the groan of the patient in the rest home. Day after day, month after month, even years—bedsores, loneliness, heartaches . . . “And what can I do?” is their complaint.
Dear Friend, you come in another category. As Milton ill his poem on Blindness states, “They also serve who only stand and wait.” Or it may be paraphrased, “They also serve who only lie and wait.” For as I observed when hospitalized for a serious surgery, when you are reclining on a hospital bed, the only outlook is the UP-LOOK. Don‘t be dismayed.
Prayer and Care warriors are needed more than ever in this mixed–up generation. Who knows how many wonders are wrought by the prayers of a bedridden patient? Who knows what soul has been salvaged from a devil’s trap by the petitions of a suffering saint? We certainly don‘t want to be dwarfed Christians. Let us grow in the grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, as stated in n Peter 3:16. Indeed, those who praise the Lord in spite of their trials change their burdens into blessings.
So you see, no matter what your circumstances at retirement, you still can enrich the lives of others all around you. But beware! Don’t let the barnacles of “DO-NOTHING-FOR-THE-KINGDOM-OF–GOD” cause your life‘s ship to founder. Let us all be up and doing while it is still called TODAY!