Reimagine Retirement

AMERICANS ARE CRAZY ABOUT RETIREMENT!

Everywhere we look there are books, articles, and websites dedicated to the subject—most of which are about how to get there fast, and how to enjoy it when you’re there.

In this book, I encourage us to reimagine retirement from a distinctly Christian perspective. In doing so, I challenge our typical view of retirement as the ultimate reward for a life of hard work by asking key questions:

• What does the Bible have to say, if anything, about retirement?
• What would a God-honoring and -glorifying retirement look like?
• If retirement is probable for most of us, how should we plan for it as wise stewards of the resources God has entrusted to our care?

In Reimagine Retirement, I answer these and other questions to help us construct a vision of retirement that reflects the values, priorities, and purposes that are most important to God.

Excerpts

On stewardship and retirement…

I would summarize stewardship of retirement as follows: Using all the good gifts that God has generously given you for your joy, the good of others, and God’s honor and glory, as you plan for and then live in retirement. This view of the stewardship of later life requires rethinking and reorienting our choices, decisions, and resources in alignment with God’s purposes and priorities—in other words, ‘reimagining retirement.’ As good stewards, we will faithfully use all that God has given us—opportunities, interests, skills, jobs, family, friends talents, spiritual gifts, possessions, health, and money—for Godly purposes throughout our lives.

On having a plan…

You can retire from your full-time job or a lifelong career, and if you do, make sure you are ready for it. Make sure you can fund your retirement and have a plan to make your money last. Take care of things like health care and long-term care if you need to. But no matter what, please don’t retire from the church, your family, or your community. Don’t retire from God’s army. Stay on mission: keep serving, keep giving, keep sharing your life and resources with others. This is the way of life in the last season of life.

On planning versus trusting God…

Therefore, for the Christian, this is not an either/or decision. On the one hand, we are exhorted to trust in God’s providence; on the other, we are instructed to ‘[diligently] plan’ rather than be ‘reckless’ or haphazard in our approach to the future (Prov. 21:5). We need to do both. That means planning and preparing for an uncertain future by stewarding our resources wisely during our working years, and also trusting God to guide us and provide for us as we faithfully live for him.