Reluctant Retiree

Just before I retired people would often ask me, “What are you planning to do in retirement?” I never had an answer for that as I hadn’t planned on retiring.

After I retired, the question that they asked was, “So you got this retirement thing down pat?” I didn’t have an answer for that either. To be honest, I didn’t know what to do. I knew that I didn’t want to just sit around the house, but I didn’t want to be committed to a lot of activities that I may not continue to enjoy.

So I volunteered to help in several good causes. Despite advertising that they wanted help, none of these organizations accepted my offers to help. As time went on, it became pretty frustrating.

Between the constant questioning from friends and family, and the rejections, I was not a happy camper. My attitude began to take a nosedive and I was not particularly easy to live with.

I prayed about the situation often. I heard God say, “Wait upon Me. I have something for you.” Sure enough opportunities did begin to open up. God led me to a number of places where I could help with compassion ministries. I started to mentor men at the rescue mission and other places. He gave me several other opportunities to serve others in short term assignments. These ministries helped me to feel better about retirement and myself.

After a couple of years, God gave us the opportunity to help a fantastic group and really be His hands and feet to serve others. Tune in next time for that story.

“But they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength” Isaiah 40:31 ESV

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This is an example post, originally published as part of Blogging University. Enroll in one of our ten programs, and start your blog right.

You’re going to publish a post today. Don’t worry about how your blog looks. Don’t worry if you haven’t given it a name yet, or you’re feeling overwhelmed. Just click the “New Post” button, and tell us why you’re here.

Why do this?

• Because it gives new readers context. What are you about? Why should they read your blog?
• Because it will help you focus your own ideas about your blog and what you’d like to do with it.

The post can be short or long, a personal intro to your life or a bloggy mission statement, a manifesto for the future or a simple outline of your the types of things you hope to publish.

To help you get started, here are a few questions:

• Why are you blogging publicly, rather than keeping a personal journal?
• What topics do you think you’ll write about?
• Who would you love to connect with via your blog?
• If you blog successfully throughout the next year, what would you hope to have accomplished?

You’re not locked into any of this; one of the wonderful things about blogs is how they constantly evolve as we learn, grow, and interact with one another — but it’s good to know where and why you started, and articulating your goals may just give you a few other post ideas.

Can’t think how to get started? Just write the first thing that pops into your head. Anne Lamott, author of a book on writing we love, says that you need to give yourself permission to write a “crappy first draft”. Anne makes a great point — just start writing, and worry about editing it later.

When you’re ready to publish, give your post three to five tags that describe your blog’s focus — writing, photography, fiction, parenting, food, cars, movies, sports, whatever. These tags will help others who care about your topics find you in the Reader. Make sure one of the tags is “zerotohero,” so other new bloggers can find you, too.

This is an example post, originally published as part of Blogging University. Enroll in one of our ten programs, and start your blog right.

You’re going to publish a post today. Don’t worry about how your blog looks. Don’t worry if you haven’t given it a name yet, or you’re feeling overwhelmed. Just click the “New Post” button, and tell us why you’re here.

Why do this?

• Because it gives new readers context. What are you about? Why should they read your blog?
• Because it will help you focus your own ideas about your blog and what you’d like to do with it.

The post can be short or long, a personal intro to your life or a bloggy mission statement, a manifesto for the future or a simple outline of your the types of things you hope to publish.

To help you get started, here are a few questions:

• Why are you blogging publicly, rather than keeping a personal journal?
• What topics do you think you’ll write about?
• Who would you love to connect with via your blog?
• If you blog successfully throughout the next year, what would you hope to have accomplished?

You’re not locked into any of this; one of the wonderful things about blogs is how they constantly evolve as we learn, grow, and interact with one another — but it’s good to know where and why you started, and articulating your goals may just give you a few other post ideas.

Can’t think how to get started? Just write the first thing that pops into your head. Anne Lamott, author of a book on writing we love, says that you need to give yourself permission to write a “crappy first draft”. Anne makes a great point — just start writing, and worry about editing it later.

When you’re ready to publish, give your post three to five tags that describe your blog’s focus — writing, photography, fiction, parenting, food, cars, movies, sports, whatever. These tags will help others who care about your topics find you in the Reader. Make sure one of the tags is “zerotohero,” so other new bloggers can find you, too.

In about a week I will celebrate the five year anniversary of my retirement. Actually “celebrate” is a misnomer and overstatement. There will be no cake, balloons or even a night out. You see, I didn’t really want to retire, nor did I even expect to retire someday.

You may find the idea that I did not expect to retire someday a bit unusual. After all, isn’t it part of the American dream to leave work behind and enjoy leisure in our Golden Years. Well, I have always had a different take on that.

You see, I am a follower of Jesus Christ. I believe that He has given me the greatest gift I could ever receive, that is savation through His death on the cross. Therefore, I want to give back to Him all that I am and have, including whatever little time I have left.

So what led to retirement? As with many of us at this age, the job I had just passed me by. Although I was working in a ministry that I loved, they moved in a different direction. I could have stayed and continued to draw a paycheck, but I didn’t have much to do anymore and I didn’t think it was right to use the ministry’s money to pay me.

Anyway, I retired. Now what? Stay tuned to the next blog post!