Retirement

“Even to your old age and gray hairs
    I am he, I am he who will sustain you.
I have made you and I will carry you;
    I will sustain you and I will rescue you.” (Isaiah 46:4., NIV)

The word ‘retirement’ used to create an image of getting up when you feel like it, going to bed after a late-evening favorite movie, going fishing, doing some traveling to my hometown and just finally living the relaxed life. Somewhere along the timeline, my thoughts have changed.

Retiring from teaching now just tells me I am not going to do THAT job any more. I am not retiring from life, just that job. One of the hardest decisions I have had to make has been about leaving my beloved teacher world. Somehow, I just can’t seem to keep up with lesson planning, art projects, classroom technology and classroom requirements. It’s difficult for me to say that I am just too old for a new class.

But…but…but I will always be a teacher. No matter where I go, I will never be able to walk away from those eyes that shine and sparkle with intrigue, those ah-ha moments and the young mind that is stuffed to the brim with creativity and talent?

Who says I have to walk away? Isn’t life a classroom and aren’t we all students? I don’t ever want to stop learning or taking time to explain something to another person.

There are so many positions in which the employees are clock watchers and they skedaddle when it’s time to go home. In their early years, they are already planning retirement. How sad! Teaching never seems to end and there is no room for boredom.

I believe that if you took a poll of people who have reached that magical age, have taught enough years, the ones who have said good-bye to the work force, you would find that a majority are busier now than ever before.

Retirement brings a different kind of tired, a peaceful, content kind of exhaustion because you no longer have to work; you participate because you have a true desire to do so.

So where does that desire come from? Do you even have to ask? Retirement is a time (at least for me) when I can catch up on all those things that I put off due to lack of time and energy. That would include spending more time with family, keeping in touch with family who are not local, writing notes to shut-ins, joining the bell choir and ever so much more. Does it sound like I am going to be bored?

I am on a slightly different path now, but one filled with excitement and gratitude. I have to keep reminding myself that I am retiring from teaching—not life!

Good, Good Father with Chris Tomlin

Father, You are a good, good Father and I thank You for being with me every step of the way. Help me not to get side tracked and help me to enjoy these senior years with you. AMEN.