What Are You Looking Forward To?

I’ve hit that happy medium of life where the later years are beckoning. Medicare. Social Security. Retirement. Rocking chair, rocking years. Whittling. Playing with the kids and teaching them things I never learned at their age. Do you have an idea of what I’ll be like in retirement? Well, what are you looking forward to yourself?

My bride retired just as a hint of the pandemic was coasting into our fair state. No name. No issue. Then suddenly, it was full strength and full force. Named, and scary. Had she known, says she, she would have worked a little longer because everyone was working from home! You’re stuck there anyway, so why not get paid for it!

I’m not ready to “retire” and I’m sure it’s not on my immediate horizon. But, who knows? The years around the corner are important and I’m not ready to back away from the challenge. However, if we’ve learned anything over the past two years, life changes on a dime. Here today. Gone tomorrow. You might as well “get” while the “getting” is good. Right? Maybe. Who knows!??!

I am reminded of my uncle’s boots on the back porch of their house. The picture for the blog prompted me to think about the many roles we play in life and what it takes to accomplish them. For him, it’s been a life-long pursuit of managing his farm, even while taking care of other facets of life.

Think with me a moment. Which pair of boots do I need today? What’s my purpose?

Here’s My Thought Today

Jesus gave us a great commission. (Matthew 28:19-20) We are commanded to be witnesses. Jerusalem. Judea. Samaria. Uttermost. A personal revelation about four decades ago painted his commandment to us like this. Be a witness at home (Jerusalem), country (Judea), that part of life we are uncomfortable with (Samaria), and through time and distance (uttermost). Uttermost lends itself to time and distance.

In other words, you don’t retire from God or who God called you to be. Though you may slow down, you keep on being what he commanded us to be. Home. Country. Uncomfortable places. Long time. Long-distance.

The past few years I’ve watched those much older than I step into their retiring years with grace, dignity, and continuing hard work. Physical challenges are greater, and the mind may work harder than ever before to adapt to the new world, but they show me to face the challenges head on. Some get to enjoy a rocking chair, new hobbies, find new purpose, or even care for those who need more care.

When my maternal grandmother was aged, and I always remember her as old (!!), I sat with her many times and asked, “Grandmother, what do you think?” This was generally after I puzzled through thought or situation with her. The grace of her answer always made me consider how wise she was. She never put anyone down and always left the judgment in God’s hands. Now, I was her grandson of her youngest daughter, and she may have handled different people differently, but I always appreciated how she never lost her view of God in her life.

Learn and Do Always

Ok. So I have a major thought in life called “Thimk and Do.” Today, it’s simple, “Learn and Do Always.”

Thimk and Do (Click to Read my thought on Thimk!)

It’s an Old Testament thought and is often called the Great Commandment. Read the chapter of Deuteronomy 6 (Click here to read). It starts like this:

“Now this is the commandment, and these are the statutes and judgments which the LORD your God has commanded to teach you, that you may observe them in the land which you are crossing over to possess, that you may fear the LORD your God, to keep all His statutes and His commandments which I command you, you and your son and your grandson, all the days of your life, and that your days may be prolonged. Therefore hear, O Israel, and be careful to observe it, that it may be well with you, and that you may multiply greatly as the LORD God of your fathers has promised you— ‘a land flowing with milk and honey.’
(Deuteronomy 6:1-3 NKJV)

Then Moses shares the teaching from God to Israel. This is the base of all of life’s knowledge of God, and they were to do them forever. Go ahead. Pause. Click the link. Read the chapter.

Jesus responded to the Pharisees when asked about the Great Commandment in the Law.

But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together. And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?”
And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment.
And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”
(Matthew 22:34-40 ESV)

My Take?

If you don’t love God or your neighbor, you miss out on doing the complete will of God, and his commission is just busywork to make you feel good. Yet, Love God. Love Others, and you will see your responsibility differently. Your goals will cross into the areas of the home, country, uncomfortable places, and for the remainder of your life.

You will never quit doing and being. No matter what happens to your body or mind. Regardless of how long you live, your focus will be on the calling of God in your life.

This gives my life purpose. I may get up and put on one pair of boots unique for the challenge of the day, but I will not forget my purpose in the day.