HAPPY RETIREMENT
The current concept of retirement is one wherein you have worked hard during your younger life, have gone on to store enough riches to last several years and so can now take it easy and enjoy life for many years to come.
This concept is very similar to the attitude of the rich man in the parable narrated by Jesus.
And he told them this parable: “The ground of a certain rich man yielded an abundant harvest. He thought to himself, ‘What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.’ “Then he said, ‘This is what I’ll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store my surplus grain. And I’ll say to myself, “You have plenty of grain laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.”’
“But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’ “This is how it will be with whoever stores up things for themselves but is not rich toward God.”(Luke 12:16-21)
The first problem is one of making riches the primary focus of life. In Jesus’ words, “a man’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions” (Luke 12:15). It is deception to think that the more you have, the happier you would be. It is also an error to put one’s trust in money and riches. Both the presence and the value of the money we possess depends on several other factors and it is not difficult to see how our possessions could turn worthless in an instant.
The second problem is one of taking life easy. The Bible does not paint a picture of God’s people taking life easy. They all were working till the end of their lives and accomplishing what God had in mind for them. While it might be appropriate to cease doing one’s professional work, a retiree would be a lot more content if he seeks on serving God for the rest of his life. Our life comes from God and to him should our lives be directed.
The final problem was one of forgetting one’s transience in this world. While death is the only certainty in life, we rarely take that into consideration when taking decisions. And that was the man’s undoing. God poured cold water on his grand designs and abbreviated his life in an ironical twist.
A happy retirement is one where these cardinal mistakes are avoided. Or better still, there is no retirement for those who belong to God.
