Reluctant Retiree

Our 1 1/2 year old granddaughter is staying with us today. She is always a joy to have around us. I look into her eyes and I see expectation of fun and excitement. I see hope for a bright day. I see love for all.

My hope is that my eyes return that love. My expectation is to instill hope and faith in God. My desire is to assist her in becoming a godly women and use the many talents God has given her.

What is God’s plan for her? While I do not know the specifics of His plan, I do know that His plans are for her good. Jeremiah 29 :11 says, “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.” This promise is for us as well. God has plans for our future and welfare.

I lived the first 21 years of my life in the same house. While life outside this house was stable, life inside was not. We had our share of family problems. After I got married and moved out, our family moved quite a few times.

Except for the two years we lived in Las Vegas, the people around us almost all had lived in the same place for decades. Most did not even want to visit other places in the country, and certainly did not want to travel internationally. While I see the benefit of stability, I don’t understand why anyone would not want to visit other cultures and learn different ways.

To me diversity is inspiring, while challenging in some respects. If we make no effort to learn from different peoples, we stay stuck in our limited and walled-in knowledge. Knowledge helps to break down the barriers between us. Of course the best bridge to strong relationships is a common understanding. Christians should have the best of common understanding, because we have God’s Spirit within us and His Word to lead us.

I John 1:7 says, “But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.” So get yourself unstuck. Get out there and have fellowship with someone from a different culture. This fellowship is good, but even better if both parties know Jesus.

Have you ever been in a room with strobe lighting? Lights are flashing in the darkness and it is very difficult to see anything.

As I get older, sometimes I feel like the world around me is darkness, except for the strobe lighting. The darkness is the fear and anxiety of many troubles. The flashing lights are the many pressures fighting for my attention. If I give into the fear, anxiety and pressures, I make bad choices and sin.

How do I find my way out from under the darkness and flashing lights, away from fear, anxiety and pressure? How do I drown out these voices seeking my attention? II Corinthians 10:5 says, “We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ.” I need to listen to the only voice speaking truth, the voice of God. His voice gives me peace in the midst of the chaos around me.

As I sit here, my stomach is growling. It is not because I am hungry, because I just ate lunch. Our stomachs sometimes growl because of some ailment. I hope that is not the case for me now, but I can’t say for sure. In any case, our stomachs most often growl because it seeks some better condition or state.

We do this as human beings also. We are not shy about raising a complaint if conditions or circumstances surrounding us are not satisfactory to us. Depending on the situation, our voices may even become elevated.

Did you know that the earth is also groaning? The Bible tells us that God created a perfect earth, a paradise called The Garden of Eden. Unfortunately man sinned and God removed man from the garden to toil on the earth. Since that time the earth has been groaning to return to that paradise state. When Jesus returns and gathers his people, dead and alive, unto himself, he will take us to a new heaven and earth. The earth will be renewed and cease its groaning.

We also groan in the same way. We are made to live in this new earth and we groan until we arrive there with Jesus. Romans 8:22-23 says, “For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.” So a great renewal will take place, but it is available to us only through placing our faith in Jesus.

I think mail delivery is a great job. You get to be outside most of the day. You get to deliver greeting cards, hopefully with kind greetings. Often you get to meet nice people. I just witnessed our mail man help an elderly lady with her large package. If you enjoy working alone, this is the job to have.

There are some disadvantages to the job. Sometimes the weather and/or people can be unpleasant. Often times the deliveries include unpleasant news. Then there are the dogs and other animals you may have to deal with.

But, all in all, I believe I am well suited for this job. I am an introvert of the highest order, so working alone is a benefit to me. I am retired now, so the dream of being a mall carrier is just that, a dream.

I have had other jobs that I was well suited for and thrived in. I did have a couple that I was not good at and did not last long in, middle school teacher and a janitor job for instance. I think that I did learn the secret to joy in all the jobs I had. It is found in Colossians 3:17: “And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.”

At one time I was a teacher’s assistant in a middle school. One day several assistants were assigned the task of putting together some teaching materials. I admit that it was boring work. The other assistants were spending the whole time complaining. God brought the Colossians verse to my mind. It changed my whole attitude and I was able to be thankful, trying to do my best work for the teachers and for the Lord.

What is liberty? Is it the freedom to do whatever we want? I suggest that it can’t be. We live in community with others, doing whatever we want will often interfere with the freedom of others to do what they want. In that case our liberty takes away from the liberty of others, so it is not true liberty.

My definition of liberty is the freedom to do the right thing, or to live in righteousness. Unfortunately, our selfishness and self-centeredness often keep us from doing the thing that we know is right. We may know what is right and want to do this right thing, but we cannot do it because our selfish desires overwhelm us.

So where is true liberty to be found. The apostle Paul describes this inner turmoil and the cure in Romans 7:22-25. It says, “For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.” And Romans 12:2 says, Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.” So the only way to consistently do the right thing is to know the right thing. We do that by allowing God to transform us by giving us renewed minds.

The holiday season is approaching so I have been thinking about gifts. Giving gifts is truly giving when we don’t expect anything in return. We give gifts to family members because we love them, but sometimes in the back of our minds we are expecting a gift in return. We give gifts to charities because of the needs the gifts help serve. But do we also give so that we can feel good about ourselves.

Wouldn’t it be great this holiday season, if we could give gifts without the expectation of receiving something in return? Perhaps we could give a gift to someone not normally on our list. Perhaps we could even give a gift to a stranger. Maybe we could do a special kindness for someone we barely know or a stranger. It would be great if I could surprise myself by sacrificing a part of the season to help others. Sure, I would benefit by feeling good about myself, but if it is true sacrifice on my part, then my motivation is really to help others.

Hebrews 13:16 encourages us to sacrifice in this way by saying, “Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God.”

I have a very hairy chest and back. I know that is TMI (Too much information), and you really don’t care. But recently I had a medical procedure where they had to shave off all that hair before the procedure. It was both disgusting to the medical assistant and embarrassing to me. Worse than that, however, has been the inevitable process of growing back that hair. It itched all the time and the little hairs kept getting caught in the fabric of my shirts. The only way to get through this process with my sanity in place was to look forward to the time when the growth and comfort returned.

It strikes me that life is a little like this hair growth process. We experience times when things are a bit uncomfortable. However, we know that these temporary struggles make us stronger and more mature. In the spiritual realm, God uses these trials to help us to grow into spiritual maturity and become more like him.

Philippians 3:12-14 says, “Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own. Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” Be patient, but always look forward to the great things God has in store for you.

I had to get another COVID test today. Someone we worked closely with last week tested positive on Saturday, so we quarantined ourselves and had another sample taken. I am not sure how a swab taken from your nose tells whether or not you have the disease, but the science suggests that it can. So I am left to trust science on this one.

We take all kinds of tests to evaluate our physical health. I test my blood sugar and blood pressure a couple times a day. Twice a year I have blood tests to check for all kinds of signs of disease. I also have MRIs taken of my head twice a year to check on growth of a tumor. Medical science has a myriad of other tests available to check our physical and mental health.

What about our spiritual health? Is there a way to check on that? Jesus gives us one way when he tells us to check our fruit. We can tell if we are healthy spiritually by examining the type of fruit our lives are producing. If we are producing the fruits of love, joy, peace and patience then we are growing spiritually in a healthy way. If our lives are demonstrating anger, jealousy, hatred, lust, and greed, then we are not healthy spiritually.

Another way to evaluate how we are doing spiritually is to ask God to do it for us. He will reveal what is truly in your heart. Psalm 139:23-24 says, “Search me Oh God and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! And see if there is any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.” After God examines our heart, we must be willing to have him make changes in us, so that we can walk in his ways.

Have you ever had the experience of washing your hands only to find out that they still are not really clean? I eat a lot of fruit with my hands. Afterward my hands are sticky, so I wash them. Many times I will then sit down to read and find that my hands are still sticky.

I had a similar experience recently with paint. I spent several days painting doors and walls. Each day I struggled to get my hands clean, never quite managing to get them fully clean.

I have the same reaction with sin. Once I have sinned and asked for forgiveness, repenting of that sin, I wonder if the stain is completing gone. I know that as a human I can forgive someone but still hold onto the bad feelings for a time. Is God the same way? Does he forgive but remember the sin to hold against me at some future date?

Ephesians 5:25-27 says, “as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.” When God forgives us, he makes us holy and blameless through the sacrifice of his Son. The stain of sin is gone.