It's Time To Retire!

One of the most confusing times in life for me was when I graduated from High School.  I suddenly found myself looking at going out into the world as an adult.  I welcomed that challenge, but it wasn't going to be without some struggles!  What bothered me was the social restrictions that came with going into a time in life when I should have been absolutely free as a bird.  The Viet Nam war was going on hot and heavy and a high school graduate had two choices in life.  Go to college or go to war!  I had been offered a full time job and either one of those choices got into my way.  I made myself go on to college.

I hated college for a number of reasons!  I won't go into all the details but it just didn't work out for me!  Part of the problem was with the college and the other part of the problem was with me!  I eventually ended up dropping out of college.  I then lived with the pressure of the inevitable draft notice that would eventually come in the mail.  It did come, and I ended up spending three years of my life in the Army.  That was really the beginning of things settling into what I expected out of life on the day I graduated from High School.  But it took eight years out of my life to get here!

Forty years have gone by since then and I find myself in another unsettled time in life.  I am facing retirement!  Before, I was being squeezed into adulthood on society's terms.  Now, I find myself being squeezed into something else, still on society's terms. 

At eighteen, the world around me was in chaos!  War was going on in Viet Nam and people were coming home dead or changed in a big way!  Rebellion and crazy living was every where.  There are people my age whose lives are still being affected daily by that war and that time of life that is forty years back in history!

When I was younger I had a picture in my mind of what retirement would be like.  It is strange but now that I am ready to retire, I don't see any of the imagined things anywhere near!  Where did they go?  Why is society dictating to me again what I can do and what I can't do?  This isn't fair, but what is truly fair in life?

In my sixty-six years of life, I have been told repeatedly one thing about life!  According to the world around me, there is nothing fair!  Life is full of injustices!  Life is full of heartache!  Life is full of bitterness!  Life is full of "poor me attitudes!"  But I don't buy that lifestyle and I have found that I don't have to be a part of them.

I have found that I can do something about all the injustices, the heartache, the bitterness and the poor me attitudes!  I can ignore them when they come to my being and help others around me who are in bondage to them!  According to John 10:10, Jesus came into the world so that I can have life and have it abundantly.  I have great things in life including my wife and family.  I have a great home and beautiful flower beds that are truly my castle.  I have great people around me all the time who work with me to get things done that are important to my ministry.

The office is full of these people right now!  They are chattering and laughing and visiting as I am trying to think of what to write here.  Other people's lives are being changed and helped because of their positive vision of life!  I have been blessed to be able to help them form their positive thinking! And what is even neater is that they are building up others around them who are working toward that same understanding and vision to help ever more people around them.  Life has been great, and once I figure this retirement things out, I bet it will just get better!