Good Sunday morning! There is an appointed time for everything. And there is a time for every event under heaven — Ecclesiastes 3:1 “Retirement” is not what I anticipated. Forget about learning French, reading the classics, getting back to my painting…some of the pursuits I once imagined. I might engage in these in my eighties or nineties, but for now and the foreseeable future, I can’t imagine finding the time. This is my 89th consecutive Sunday message. As is typical, I’m writing it sometime between midnight on Saturday night and 8:00 a.m. Sunday morning, a self-imposed deadline for posting about 800 words good enough to engage at least one person, a reader, and fellow life sojourner. (It would be better to have written this earlier this week, but I didn’t have time.) I have a friend who implied the questions I ask myself, “Why am I doing this? Who asked my opinion? Why do I presume that anyone would want to know what I’m observing, doing, thinking, hoping, aspiring to, as life races forward and time slips away like sand in an hour glass? “I could write a blog, too,” he said, “but who am I?” Indeed, who am I? My answer is that I am both a nobody, and quite a somebody. Because I’m a Christian, I’m confronted daily with the unfathomable tenet that the Son of God died on the cross so that I might have abundant life. Getting a handle on this and what it means to the living of my days — in other words, maturing in my faith — is my number one pursuit in retirement. The foundational doctrine of Christianity is at once uncomfortably humbling and inescapably empowering. And while part of faith is accepting that there are things we cannot understand, I’m committed to carving out time to be reflective, contemplative, prayerful, and intentional, now, in my seventh decade. Retired folks claim they can’t understand how they ever had time to work. Longevity and other contemporary life factors have delayed the demands of living “sandwiched” between our loved ones: parents, children, and grandchildren, if we are so fortunate. These blessings can consume every waking hour. Following a period in which my attention was focused on my parents, age 90 and 93, I’ve had rare, precious time with the other end of the age spectrum. In recent weeks, my husband Jim and I have relished visits with our children, daughters-in-law, and our grandsons, Rees, age 14 months and Joshua, age 12 months, in Boston, New York City, and Naples, Florida. I developed tunnel vision with the demands that accompany family visits, to the extent that a dear friend’s birthday nearly passed without my acknowledgment. (My multi-tasking skills are not what they once were, another unanticipated reality of retirement years.) But, again, why am I sharing these thoughts in the wee hours of Sunday morning with you? Because you make all the difference. In my late fifties I discovered that I not only like to write, but that it is my vehicle to deeper contemplation. With the publication of a book and several articles, I realized that writing focuses my thinking and enables advancement in my understandings. Writing regularly is the one retirement goal that I cannot give up if I am to live out my days with ever-maturing faith — and be fearless, joyful, and confident regardless of my circumstances. Recognition that another might read this keeps me on task. You, dear Reader and fellow life sojourner, are an important partner as I pursue God’s guidance, write for clarity, and seek to live and finish well. By “finishing well” I’m referring to the final chapter of this wonderful and terrifying earthly life. As a Christian, I believe that life can be eternal, but — another complexity — if Christ was sent to live among us, we must assume that this earthly life matters, greatly. And, while the good news is that forgiveness of sins and eternal life are free gifts that we do not deserve, we are responsible for rejecting or accepting these gifts and all they imply. A common view is that people follow Christianity to get to heaven when they die. But Christianity teaches us that we cannot earn entrance to heaven. We must rely on the grace of God for that. I imagine that when my faith is more mature, I will find greatest comfort in the promise of heaven, but the strong appeal of Christianity to me is that we don’t have to wait until we die to experience the kingdom of God (love/hope/faith/justice). We can be a part of bringing it to this world now. Every week I wonder if this is my last Sunday post. And then realize that there is still so much to contemplate with you. Have a great week.
Posted on: Sun, 09 Nov 2014 12:58:14 +0000
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