Matthew 7:26-27
And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell…
Look at the picture above! Jesus warned us about this! Here is a guy who built his house on the sand. As you can see, people are shoveling sand from underneath his house to make cement for their own houses.
Bad construction usually is a result of realities and not thoroughly evaluating the situation for down the road. Although the house and it’s land looks good and solid, this is not going to end well. He probably put his house there because others did. With the first good rain, it’s all over. He didn’t heed Jesus warnings. Probably got bad advice.
Retirement is the same way. How can a person making just enough to get by, live well on just 50% pension. Retirement, although eventually necessary for everyone sounds good, looks good, but is an untrue and unrealistic dream for many. More so today than ever before.
It has been said, ‘If you do what you love, you never work a day in your life.’ So why retire early? Especially when your job is something non physical, nor stressful, ie pastoring or missions work.
I have seen good pastors go into retirement and disappear. They go fishing, stuff like that. It seems that what they did for a career was unfulfilling. Now they hide from their sheep. Kind of leaves me scratching my head. Barring sickness, or bad personal experiences, why would they do that? I think they got bad advice.
I have also seen great preachers work until the day they die. I want to go out like that. I think the key is building your house, your ministry, and life on theRock which is Jesus Christ. They took Jesus’ advice, which is always good.
Whether you retire long before you have to, or not, has to do with your realities and thoroughness in evaluating the situation down the road. Big business, large denominations, governments, etc are getting less and less concerned about the elderly so it is best to do what you love as long as you can so you don’t have to worry about being left high and dry. The days of the gold watch and great pension plans are over.
It isn’t easy holding off on retirement, even if you love you job. Just as it isn’t easy to build on a rock. However, it is a lot better for you in the long run. It is tempting to retire early, or to build on sand. The world will tell you that those things makes more sense. The world is very short sighted. The Bible tells us not to do either.
Luke 12:19-20 And I’ll say to myself, “You have plenty of grain laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry. But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’
Sure I can’t do what I could do even 10 years ago. What I can do though, is still a lot of fun. We aren’t super human, we all wear down eventually. We don’t have to completely stop however. Being a Christian, a minister of the Gospel is a blast! Do what you can for God’s glory, today.
Dean