Finding Your New Pace

Since I was 14 years old (Gasp! Nearly 52 years ago!), I’ve held “jobs” that required me to be somewhere, do something, and leave at prescribed times. On the side, I always did odd jobs to add to the bottom line. My last year in high school was working full time, taking one class at 7:30 a.m., and finishing the year in December. That was the year Nixon won by a landslide, and the class was Government – the only course I needed to graduate from a different high school than where I had attended all my other years.

The pace I set allowed me to grow and enjoy the climate of making a paycheck.

For the next 35 years, I worked in IT, from keypunch cards to web teams. It was a great experience. Along the way, I responded to my calling of ministry and pioneered two churches. Alaska. Washington. It’s here in the Pacific NW that I’ve made my home for just about 35 years.

My pace in today’s world is much different. It’s been a while since I had a “regular” job. Slowly, pastoring filled the hours as I left my “career” behind. Today, aging, and along with the pandemic, the role and goal of ministry have changed. Dramatically. This very long season, actually the past two years has changed my perspective. On many fronts, I’ve felt the isolation differently than others. In ministry, I’ve been used to having an audience, a congregation of people that was my extended family. It’s been stressful not seeing my family. I feel out of touch.

Then, I hit the official age of retirement. 65, and soon 67. Between these two years, I did not age out to pasture as younger folks stepped into the role of leadership. For the most part, I’ve stayed at the helm, and the pulpit, every service. My retiring pace is not happening. I think my hair has become just about completely white during this season.

This Makes Me Think

All that being said, this has given me pause. The thinking cap is adjusted and in place. What is my new pace?

Let’s see. Throw in a car wreck with an unreplaced totaled vehicle. Stimulus puppies that produced a litter of full-time attention puppies of their own. Then, the house needs some attention to get it ready for sale and build a more appropriate home for those retiring years (No Stairs!) Top it all with the pandemic and vaccine concerns. It seems, almost, this is a younger person’s game. Time to head for the hills!

Where I might have added a role of “chaplain” for the hospitals and enjoyed extending my retiring reach within my community, going to places where I come in contact with a virus, I paused. One chaplain shared his experience of suiting up to deal with C-19 patients. This desire to be involved will not help me with my church, and I wouldn’t want to be so impacted that my church suffers, so let’s not do this.

As we enter the new season, finances become a bigger question. Once paychecks filled up our bank accounts, we now live from the beginning of the month’s deposit and spread our funds over the next four weeks until the next month. True. Many have learned this successfully, but when you’ve lived with paychecks seemingly showing up every week, this has been a season we did not expect.

Adapt, Or Not, It Makes No Never Mind

I could share all the other things I’m thinking about (health, travel, limitations, being stuck, etc.), but I’m sure you get the picture. Why? It’s no different than millions of others. Adapting is the rule of the day.

Through my years, I’ve been one to adapt on a dime. Switch gears. Head off in new directions, unworried about the future. Now, my future becomes more apparent. The car wreck created stress in my back, and I’ve slowed down. That teen year of getting my knee hit by a baseball bat, well, surgery finally took care of the torn meniscus, but it’s not up to parr. Again, this is a long list not worthy of anyone’s attention but my own.

How do you become satisfied with the adaption mode of your future?

If I were a rich man… Hmmm. Tevye? What would you say? Their three-legged stool of life has a leg knocked out from under them, if you know the story. Why? Politics. Racism. War. They have to leave their home. “Where will we go?” Some to their homeland, and others across the pond for new options in America! The story doesn’t tell of every life’s challenge, but you get the drift. At elder ages, life continually changes.

For some, riches improve your options, sure, but it only means there’s more on your plate to be concerned about.

Wednesday, October 13, 2021, William Shatner is supposed to launch into space. Fifty years after Star Trek began, Captain James Tiberius Kirk is finally getting into space at 90! That knocks my socks off! Space may be the final frontier of a wealthy person’s game.

So, What To Do?

I’m not a rocking chair, rocking years, type of person. There are new horizons to gaze upon, getting closer every day, and then looking forward to tomorrow for even further horizons. Wash. Rinse. Repeat. (Yes. it’s a never-ending circle!) New horizons require new money. Daily!

I’ve learned what I don’t want to do. I find limitations that seem impossible in what I do want to do. Since I plan on living till triple digits identify my age, I better get a handle on what the next 33+ years will look like. Finding a safe way to bring new dollars to the bank account will be necessary, or scale back my vision. Staying healthy is paramount. Make wise choices. Know my limits. Keep my head on straight!

The one thing I make note of, it’s really not about the “pace of life,” rather, the “peace of life.” I can move at the speed of light or a snail, but if there’s no peace then I’m not really comfortable with my pace.

The Apostle Paul states he is content with whatever comes his way, only, he says it like this.

Actually, I don’t have a sense of needing anything personally.
I’ve learned by now to be quite content whatever my circumstances.
(Philippians 4:11 MSG)

Maybe this is the key to life. Being content with whatever happens to come your way, even if it’s the most challenging thing you’ve ever faced.

What would you do? I’m open to your input!