No matter what phase of life you find yourself in, you should live it with a sense of relevant purpose in life. Six years ago, I retired from my rewarding job as an engineer. The next day, my wife and I reached the 38-year milestone of marriage. To celebrate, she and I went on a 4-day, 3-night cruise. Five of our six children and two of our three grands accompanied us. What an awesome way to celebrate two great occasions.
During the cruise, I got some much needed rest. I didn’t know how tired I was until I got some time to rest.
Before I retired, a number of people asked me what would I do with all the time I would have. Time? What time? While working in the engineering profession, I also worked about 30 hours a week in ministry. I needed more time than that, but that’s all I had to give because God gives us only 24 hours in a day.
Actually, that’s one reason I retired. Too much work to do; not enough time to do it.
Since retirement, I have been working full-time during ministry work. That’s my passion. By way of retirement, God has given me the desire of my heart. I love book writing, blogging, podcasting, preaching and teaching. And that’s what I can now do more completely. I plan to continue doing those things all the days of my life.
The Necessity of Relevant Purpose in Life
Let me get to what I really want to say in this post. When I got within 1 year of retirement, I came to realize that many people feared retirement. They say they just didn’t know what they would do with all the time on their hands. It’s as if they did not realize that a life beyond the workplace exists. I never even thought about that as being a problem for some people until I neared retirement and the subject kept coming up. Several of my colleagues chose to keep working beyond eligibility for the very reason.
Some of them told me they envied me because I had something to do that I loved during after I retired. My point is that it is a blessing to have a sense of relevant purpose in life. Some people think it would be great to live life doing virtually nothing. But I want you to know that is not God’s will for any of us.
Even nature teaches us that. Being productive in life promotes physical and mental well-being. Being sedentary and unproductive does the opposite.
When God created us, He blessed each of us with a relevant purpose in life. This He did, “not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began” (2 Tim. 1:9, KJV). Even retirement is not a rite of passage into a state of mere existence. Let us embrace God’s purpose for our life, and let us live it with passion as long as He blesses us to do so.
Copyright © 2022 by Frank King. All rights reserved.