Today I am going to continue from my series of posts from the book Why Guys Need God by Mike Erre.  I am going to discuss something out of chapter 3 which is titled Naming The Animals.  Here it is

Even the American ideal of retirement reflects a self-interested, materialistic bias.  The Bible never encourages a stage of life where we are independent enough to simply do what we want to do.  Many men do use retirement as an opportunity to given and serve.  But more often than not, retirement becomes and excuse for indulgence.  Maybe we think we’ve earned the right to do absolutely nothing because we’ve worked for years at a job we’ve hated.  Or maybe we just want to try new things.  Either way, if we focus exclusively on our pursuits and ourselves, something starts to die within us.  This is the stage of life when the community around us needs us the most.  The younger generations need those at this stage to be active, more involved, and more willing to serve as spiritual mentors and fathers.

I am not sure why our mentality is often skewed when it comes to retirement.  I know for the longest time I looked at retirement as a time to just sit back and relax and spend the day doing what I wanted on my terms how selfish is that.  I believe in many churches across america that spiritual mentors need to rise up.  I have seen this personally in some peoples lives.  They did not decide just to disappear into retirement but have decided to give themselves in service to the king.  When I grow older and approach my retirement years I do not want to have the idea that I am somehow done that my life is not complete.  I pray that God will give me the strength and energy to keep on influencing others for Him.

There was one man that effected my life probably more then he will ever know and that man was retired but he stayed faithful serving the Lord.  He was one of the most humble individuals I had ever met and to sit back and watch his energy and vigor for the Lord impacted me profoundly.  I often remember hearing him preach the word and saying to myself when I am that age I pray I have the same vigor he has.  I pray that by God’s grace one day when I hit that age of retirement that I will influence someone as much as he influenced me.