When I retired three-and-a-half years ago, I went through the first six months battling what was a monumental change in my life. In the 50+ years of my career, I was busy. I worked in some quite high-profile roles. I served on many boards and dealt with people across many circumstances, both positive and negative.
But, when I retired, it was as though someone had flicked a switch.
I went through a pretty tough six-months period of mental stress. I called it a ‘relevance crisis’.
I thought former work colleagues might ask me for the occasional bit of advice; I was always busy handing it out. But not a single phone call came my way. I felt like I was dumped on the scrap heap.
Suddenly, I felt ordinary. Not special. Not valued. No longer a respected senior member of staff.
I have only just discovered Retirement Stewardship, a web blog that focuses on the various aspects of retirement from a Christian stewardship perspective. It’s founded on 1 Peter 4:10: “Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms.”
As Christian retirees we all need to discover, or perhaps re-discover, those gifts, no matter how out of practice we might be in using them. And it’s not just the usual, perhaps glamorous, gifts we so often talk about. It can be simply reading to someone whose eyesight is no longer up to it. Or using a pad and pen to have a conversation with someone whose hearing is not all it could be.
These gifts of kindness are ordinary, but they also show love, and compassion. These are powerfully extraordinary gifts. They are simple elements of Christian stewardship that are extraordinary in the eyes of God.
The blog asks: What is an ‘ordinary Christian life’ for a retiree? Is living an ‘ordinary’ life a good thing? Doesn’t God want us to live extraordinary lives—with exceptional experiences and accomplishments? Isn’t that what most people retire for?
As a Christian retiree, I realise now that you don’t have to be anything other than ordinary to be a faithful steward of God’s grace, living out an extraordinary gospel.
This is the embodiment of the message on Guarding the Gospel that our retiring minister, Rev Dr Schalk Pienaar, gave in his closure service. It’s all about believing, living, and sharing the gospel.Indeed, Jesus’ twelve Apostles were not necessarily what you would describe as extraordinary people. He chose them for their ordinariness. By being in that ‘ordinary’ class, they were able to relate to other ‘ordinary’ people.
For ‘ordinary’ Christian retirees, in these modern days and modern challenges, the blog notes that: We are called to live Christlike lives through all the ups and downs of life so those who get close to us can see something of an image of Christ himself. Such a life isn’t ‘ordinary’.
And for Christian retirees, retirement stewardship does not have to be clouded or derailed by a ‘relevance crisis’. For Christian retirees, doing ordinary things can lead to extraordinary results, because people will see Christ in those ordinary things.
And how do we get to do those ordinary things? By being close to God is how. By being ordinary. By being humble. By listening to God to hear his purpose for our lives in our retirement. By following that purpose faithfully and in truth.
Paul says, at 2 Corinthians 12:9: But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore, I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
‘Relevance crisis’? No! Let us all, especially in retirement, live an extraordinary life by being ordinary. Let us be extraordinary by doing the simple things. Let us be extraordinary by sharing God’s grace through our simple love for others.
