“Which one is the real tragedy here?”
I’m sitting next to my dad as he drives his 2002 Chevy Suburban up the windy Pennsylvania Turnpike. We’re on our way to Elkhart, Indiana for my cousin’s wedding (that I’ll have the honor of shooting in two days) and to spend some time with my maternal side of the family while we’re there. The ride up to Indiana is always bumpy and slightly uncomfortable; it’s somewhat a labor of love driving these 9 hours out to the Midwest to see our family members. The hours drag on, but the conversation is always good and it’s worth the home cooked meals once we arrive, so I think I can manage to survive the next few hours.
Somehow we’ve landed on the topic of retirement. Usually this early into the drive it’s all music or podcasts, but we’ve been riding in silence as I’ve been working, so naturally, the conversation picked up earlier than usual, and we’re now in deep discussion about how we should think about money and our lifestyle approach once we reach the later years of our lives.
My dad is telling me about a coworker of his who believes “retirement isn’t Biblical.” “I can see some truth to that,” I respond. I tell my dad, “Someone just shared an interesting perspective with me the other day regarding that viewpoint… they were listening to a sermon that addressed the story of two young missionaries who were working in some remote part of the world. Their car veered off the side of road and went over a cliff and they both died. The community mourned their deaths and the story was, for obvious reasons, referred to as a ‘tragedy.’ The pastor sharing this story asked his congregation, ‘Friends, is that really a tragedy? These two young women doing what they loved, serving the Lord and being his hands and feet, making our world a better place, and dying while doing that? Or do two retired 65 year olds collecting seashells on a beach somewhere represent a more tragic ending? Which one is the real tragedy here?”
It’s food for thought. It poses the question, is it more tragic to live out your last days in pleasure and leisure, or to die young for a cause that changes the world, like these two young women did? What makes our lives valuable? Is it what you do? The legacy you leave? The experiences you have? The lives you change? Or the memories you make?
I can name several people off the top of my head that have entered the later years of their lives, have more money than they could ever need in their bank account, and yet live like there’s an endless amount of time left with plenty of years to spend the money they worked their entire lives to save. But how much time really is left? And how should that money be spent? Is the traditional American concept retirement Biblical or not? Should we spend our lives counting down to the day we no longer “have” to work, or should every day be met with the same vigor and passion for life no matter how old we are?
Saving For Retirement | A Biblical Perspective
There will come a day I can no longer shoot a wedding or stand on my feet to take pictures. There will also come a day when I grow too tired and too slow to even sit at a desk and work on emails, editing, or whatever I’ll be doing 40 years from now to make a living. Of course we should save for that day! It would be irresponsible, unwise, and just downright stupid not to. The resources God blesses us with now are meant to be handled with good stewardship, and part of that looks like saving for a rainy day and making sure we can take care of ourselves when we can no longer actively be making money in our old age.
But does that mean we should spend our lives looking forward to the days we don’t have to get up and go to work? Not at all. Actually, my hope is that our retirement funds will someday allow us to pursue some of our greatest passions and pursuits in life, the ideas we aren’t able to pursue yet because of the time constraints of our jobs and the limits of our bank accounts. As much as it sounds amazing to sit on the beach with Justin for the last 20 years of our life… I’m not sure that’s what God put us here for.
I think that’s what people are getting at when they say things like “retirement isn’t Biblical.” In the American sense, I think I’d agree… it probably isn’t the best spiritually, physically, or mentally for us to check the metaphorical box at age 55 and say “I’m done!” and then sit on our bums until the day we die. As a Christian I know that each day I’m given is an opportunity to love people and serve them well, to foster community and spiritual growth, and yes, to enjoy the fruits of my labor somedays and just kick back and relax! I just don’t think we should invest all of our time in the latter once retirement arrives.
Work is a GOOD thing. Work existed before sin entered the world. Before Adam and Eve chose to disobey God and go their own way, they had a divine purpose: to care for the garden, to foster growth in the world, to name the animals and rule over them, to fill the Earth and subdue it, to be fruitful and multiply. That’s so beautiful to me! God didn’t create us for the purpose of pleasure, He created us for the purpose of pursuit. We are all made by design for that purpose, and it’s one that will exist when we get to heaven, too!
I don’t know about you, but knowing this is so reassuring for me. It’s the perfect balance between planning and saving for the later years of our lives and knowing that when our retirement season arrives, our purpose doesn’t change. God will just use us in a different way when that time comes. So, it is all the more important now to be ready for that calling over our lives once we’re old and gray and not as physically strong and able as we are now to work a full-time job. Saving for retirement is a duty we have to prepare for that day when God calls us into our next chapter. It’s exciting to think about!
So, if you find yourself on one end of the spectrum or the other, know that there is a middle ground. While we shouldn’t spend the first 50 years of our lives counting down to retirement day when we can finally go lay on that beach or sit on the porch and read for the remaining years of our lives, we also shouldn’t veer off to the other extreme and say “retirement isn’t Biblical so I’m not really planning on it.” It’s definitely unwise and irresponsible to avoid or delay planning for that season of your life and expect the government to take care of you once you get there. (Please don’t do that!) Instead, our retirement season should be viewed as an upcoming chapter of our Christian ministry in this world… a calling that is worth saving for. In fact, Jesus clearly and boldly tells us to.
“To those who use well what they are given, even more will be given, and they will have abundance. But from those who do nothing, even what little they have will be taken away.” Matthew 25:29 (Parable of the Talents, which I highly recommend reading in regards to this topic.)
If you haven’t started saving for retirement, it’s not too late! And if you are retired and are wondering what you can do to make these golden years of your life your most impactful yet, I’d suggest finding an amazing church in your area that provides opportunities to serve (our home church Hope Hill is wholeheartedly focused on outreach and community service), researching reputable charities that will use your money to literally change the world (Tim Tebow Foundation has seven different yet equally incredible causes that your donations funnel into), and simply by praying and asking God to use you in these last years of your life how He wants to. Just asking that in your heart will open doors you couldn’t have dreamed of.
And friends, if you’re not retired yet, all of these are so worth pursuing even with what little you might have now. To those who are faithful with little, much more will be given. Put all that you have into pursuing the purpose you were put here for. That purpose is worth more than anything else.
