Don’t retire without a plan for your time and sense of purpose. That is the advice I would give anyone thinking of retiring. Possibly, one would think that having one’s time mapped out is exactly why one retires. But, we underestimate the emotional power of routine and the feeling that we contribute to the world in some small way.
Retiring means ceasing to get up each day and leaving home to engage with the masses of humanity we meet on the busses or trains or on the highways in our cars. It means sitting alone and wondering what to do next. It leads to feelings of purposelessness, as though we have ceased to be important to the world. If our jobs have defined our sense of worth, retirement means losing our employed self and the means of discovering each day our value and worth to others.
I worked for 23 years for the telephone company. Because most of that time was in repair, I felt that I kept people connected to each other, helped families stay in communication at times of trials and troubles, and helped love to flourish for the young and old as they spoke sweet words across the telephone lines I helped to wire. But when the job was outsourced, I sought to fulfill my dream.
For nearly twenty years, I was a college professor, and I felt a sense of worth in a job that I enjoyed. I have kept in touch with former students, which gives me a sense that I have touched the world. When I retired in 2017 and again in 2020 with Covid-19, I felt lost and had no plans for the future. Yes, I wanted to travel, but eventually, you come home, as you can only stand so many Airbnbs.
I returned to work last August, and as I entered grades this morning for the first 8-week term of this semester, I once again delighted in my job. But, I have other dreams that, even at age 72 I want to fulfill, such as writing a book on my life and preaching as much as the Lord will open doors for me. I think one more year of teaching. Then I will focus on the new chapters of my life if that is God’s will and I have many days left in the land of the living.
I am already writing the book, with chapters ready, and I plan to contact Amazon about how to self-publish. I preached a sermon on Keeping Hope Alive in Desperate Times on February 18 at my new church, as an opportunity to preach came out of nowhere but the grace and mercy of God. So, God is opening doors, and now I am ready to walk through them to greener pastures to find my worth and value to the world, touching lives as I have always wanted to do, as positively as I can. As an author and preacher, I am still teaching, which I believe was the plan of God for my life before I lived even one day.
Help from Heaven 
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