Many of us have looked forward to retirement with great anticipation. Some envision endless days of hitting the greens and playing golf, seeking that elusive “great shot” that everyone should have seen. Still others dream about frequent cruises or days on a tropical beach sipping an umbrella drink. Some have visions of doing nothing saying, “When I retire, I don’t want to do anything! I’ve spent my whole life running around, so when I retire, I’m ready to do nothing!”
As a follower of Jesus, is there a proper way of retiring? Surely the Bible offers some guidance or instruction. Maybe before we look at what the Bible has to say, we should understand what retirement is and how it has become what we now know today.
The word “retirement” comes to us originally from France and was used as a military term meaning, “an act of retreating, falling back, or withdrawing”. During the 1660’s we see the first recorded use of the term to describe the “leaving of one’s business or occupation.”
In America, by the beginning of the twentieth century, those over the age of sixty-five were considered “old” and it was widely believed that they suffered from a loss of productivity. In fact, in 1905 a professor of medicine at Johns Hopkins argued that “all men should retire at age sixty because by then they have lost all mental elasticity.” In 1907, the U.S. Congress declared army veterans by age sixty-two to be “half disabled” due to their advanced age. Around the same time period, the U.S. Supreme Court in defense of the first Railroad Retirement Act stated that, “It is a commonplace fact that physical ability, mental alertness, and cooperativeness tend to fail after a man is sixty-five.”
Although today such opinions seem absurd and discriminatory, we must remember that at that time, if one actually lived to age sixty-five, they had survived significantly past their life expectancy. Life expectancy in the year 1900 was forty-eight years. By 1950, life expectancy had risen to sixty-seven years, meaning if you lived your life expectancy, you would collect social security for just a little over 2 years! In contrast, by 2020, life expectancy jumped to seventy-six years, and in 2025, that number has risen to seventy-nine years, or fourteen years after most people begin receiving Social Security disbursements. So now, in contrast to just a little over one-hundred years ago, we are living well past that magic age of sixty-five. So, what does the Bible say about retirement?
There really isn’t much in the Bible about retirement because, with rare exception, people in Biblical times didn’t retire, they pretty much just worked until they dropped and were either no longer capable of doing anything or they died. Work was necessary for all but the rich, just to survive. An obvious exception is found in Numbers where Moses gives God’s instructions to the Levites who were to be priests. In Numbers 8:23-24, the Lord gives His specific instructions about how long the Levites were to serve. God establishes that the Levites would serve beginning at age twenty-five, but at the age of fifty “they must retire from their regular service and work no longer.” The passage goes on to allow them to continue to assist their brothers, but they are not allowed to do the work. This is support for the concept that we may retire from the primary “heavy” work that we have done during our career, but continue to do other support work that is not the “meaty’ or “heavy” work that was our career.
I’ve spent nearly thirty years of my life talking with a lot of retired people as a part of my work on estates and trusts. I have come to the conclusion that most of us have retirement wrong. You see, this is the time in our lives where there is a confluence of all the factors that will enable us to make the biggest impact of our lives on the world around us and upon eternity. Just think of all we know. Over the past forty to fifty years, we have acquired wisdom that can only be learned through the passage of time and by experiencing adversities. We have knowledge and skills that could only be learned through time and labor. We possess talents from birth and Spiritual gifts given to us by God, who empowers us to build up His Kingdom. Many of us finally have the resources available where we are free from the distraction of needing to work forty to sixty hours a week to provide for our families. The great question bouncing around in our heads should then be, “What impact will I leave with the time left on my life clock?” Many of us are entering the final quarter of our life and it is time to ask ourselves, “What planning or steps have I taken, or do I need to take to make my impact one of my highest priorities, if not the highest priority in my life?”
Six weeks after I retired, I suffered my first stroke. I had been perfectly healthy for a man my age, but I quickly realized that our time here on earth is short, and tomorrow is not guaranteed. David in Psalm 139:16 reminds us that, “all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.” With the average U.S. life expectancy now slightly over seventy-nine years, many of us will have only fourteen years to make an impact for Christ.
I can tell you from my personal experience (the stroke was only the beginning), men statistically begin to fall apart soon after reaching retirement age. Eighteen to twenty months after retirement age, 24% of men will experience a significant physical illness or injury. Some of these health events are physically life altering. We need to be aware that we may not have the full fourteen years from retirement age to make the impact we’d like to make. Even though we may suffer difficulties and adversities, that does not excuse us from doing all we can with the resources with which God has blessed us.
I had several serious life-threatening events occur within the first three years of retirement. Although plans were disrupted and some abandoned, I realized that God does still want us to have pleasure. We know from Scripture that God does want us to enjoy ourselves and experience happiness; however, making pleasure and excess self-indulgence our primary goal is selfish and unfulfilling. King Solomon authored the book of Ecclesiastes, in which after his lifetime of self-indulgence and chasing worldly pursuits, he concludes, “vanity of vanities, all is vanity.” Solomon, perhaps the richest man to ever live, had everything and found life meaningless without God.
Looking back at the three approaches to retirement I mentioned, I conclude that it would be pure folly to take this precious, limited timeframe we have left on earth to spend on things that simply feed our hunger and unquenchable desire for more. Jesus referred to these pursuits as building up our kingdom on earth; the wood, hay and stubble that will burn up at the end. Trying to satisfy ourselves with “things” and self-indulgence is illusory and ultimately unfulfilling.
Back to the original question, ‘Should a Christian retirement be different than a secular retirement? In a word, Yes, a Christian’s retirement should be different and unique from that of a non-Christian’s retirement. Christians have a special calling and purpose for their lives, and that special calling and purpose does not miraculously stop at age sixty-five.
How then can I achieve a retirement that is successful and fulfilling (and fun)? First of all, I assume that many of you lived or live according to a strategic plan. Your life and career was evaluated based on how well you reached your goals and objectives. Our need to have a plan and purpose for retirement life is just as important as the plans we had before. Sit down and ask yourself, “What impact or legacy do I want to leave my family?” Then ask, “What impact or legacy do I want to leave in the world around me?” Then finally, ask, “What impact do I want to make on eternity with the short timeframe I have left?” The most successful retirees have built their lives around serving and volunteering with others. Independent studies done by premier medical facilities have determined that male retirees who volunteer and serve others have less incidence of significant physical ailments.
Seek out opportunities that appeal to you and find ways to regularly (two to three times per week) serve others. Remember, the only commodity that will survive and share eternal life is other people. Now is the time to reinvest all the wisdom, knowledge and skills that we acquired during the previous fifty years, helping to impart the lessons we have learned from making mistakes and living through adversity. I admonish you to take advantage of each and every precious moment we are given, striving to make the greatest impact for God’s Kingdom. That is where we will find true and lasting fulfillment and joy.
Finally, how should a Christian’s retirement be different than a non-Christian’s retirement? The eighteenth-century missionary to China, India and Africa, C.T. Studd, wrote a poem that addresses our question. The poem’s refrain says, “Only one life t’will soon be past, only what’s done for Christ will last.” As I enter into the final quarter of my life, my greatest goal, my highest priority, is to “finish strong” and to hear those glorious words, “Well done, my good and faithful servant, enter into the joy of your master.”
