PREVENT A WASTED LIFE

Last week in this space I wrote that I am appalled by “the amount of money spent in America to persuade people my age to start wasting the rest of their lives.” My premise was that retirement was never meant by God to be the dissipation of the last couple of decades of our lives focused chiefly on the pursuit of our own pleasures.

As the retirement gurus tell you, how well you retire is generally determined by how well you prepare for retirement. Of course, what most of them mean by that expression is that the amount of money you have to spend in your post-working years is based on how wisely you earn and invest money during your working career. The assumption behind this is that how well you live depends on how much you have.

Jesus looked at life rather differently. He said, “Be alert and watch out for greed. Life does not consist of what you possess, even if you have an abundance” (Luke 12:15). Jesus then told a parable about a rich man, who foolishly supposed that his worldly wealth would guarantee a happy retirement, only to discover that God was bringing him up for judgment on the basis of whether he used his riches for himself or for the Kingdom of God (Luke 12:16 - 20).

Jesus clearly wants us to focus on the “why” of life, rather than the “how much:” for what purpose are we alive? If we are living for ourselves, then we will think of retirement just like we think of the rest of life: a time to maximize our resources for the service of our own wants and the fulfillment of our own desires.

Holy Scripture presents a radical and eternal alternative to such self-absorbed existence. One verse sums it up: “Let the thief engage in thievery no more. Instead, let him labor earnestly, doing something good with his hands, so that he may have something to give away to those in need” (Ephesians 4:27).

Did you notice the point? God’s Word tells His people not only to work hard instead of stealing, but tells us also why we ought to work hard: so that we may have plenty to give away. In other words, don’t steal to get, and don’t work to get. Work to give.

With this more biblical understanding of life, let’s take a tip from the retirement gurus. However, let’s apply it to the fact that we were, each of us, created to display the glory of God. The conclusion is this: how well we display the glory of God in our retirement days depends on how well we prepare to display His glory every day.

Are you preparing to display the glory of God by the way you live? Any other purpose for living leads only to a wasted life. By all means, let us work to prevent such a waste.