Is that all there is?” my friend mused when he retired.
He had been the top agricultural economics person in his university, had worked hard to achieve his position and found the work satisfying.
But when the retirement date came, he and his wife looked at each other and wondered if that was all there was. They didn’t feel fulfilled. So they looked for some overseas advisory work.
That’s when I, the newbie “missionary,” met them.
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The agricultural college they were assigned to in South Korea took a winter break, so they came to language school.
They brought with them the wisdom of the years, which made them an asset in a classroom of floundering greenhorn students.
They laughed at us when we became frustrated and angry, and taught us to laugh at ourselves. They told us how hard it was for their kids to approve of what they were doing because “parents should be more rooted.”
And we told them about the reaction of our parents when we said we would be halfway around the world for four years. Above all, they told us how satisfied they felt doing this assignment and how they wanted to renew their contract for another year.
Too often those approaching retirement age in our society believe they’ll be stepping over a threshold into an abyss.
We have to make the best of this stage by looking for the doors and windows that open to invite us into new ventures.
Retirement gives us the freedom to say yes or no to those openings in a way that has never before been possible.
“Is that all there is?”
We can choose to either stagnate or look for horizons that beckon. The Lord calls us to look for the rainbows, even when it might feel like we’ve become hidden under a cloud of tears.
Joyce Sasse writes for the Canadian Rural Church Network at www.canadian ruralchurch.net.
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opinion, none, none
