Don’t Flunk your Retirement!

Too many people, and more guys than gals, flunk their retirement.  OK, many if not most, are financially prepared, and they appear to be recreationally involved in some leisure activities.  All to the good!  But how prepared are they as professed Christians in the most important life arena… their spiritual life?  It’s here where we can flunk retirement; we simply do not see retirement for what it fundamentally is... a new calling to new life.

So what is new life exactly?  Well, it doesn’t mean you need to necessarily move your residence or find a new life partner, or change your friends, or go to new restaurants.  No, new life speaks to your interior life – what’s inside of you.  For me, and for most Christians, interior life is the life of your soul.  But how does one access the soul?  The best staring point is to look at your personality.

While everyone has a unique personality, no two personalities are identical; every personality performs the same six functions:  1) believing, 2) perceiving, 3) thinking, 4) feeling, 5) deciding, and 6) acting.  As we move into and through our retirement journey, regardless of its length, we need to use our God-given personality in different ways than we did before.  I’m going to give you a taste of what this personality re-functioning looks like here by giving you six new “Re” words, but I will elaborate on these in my next blog. 

1. Re-Valuing your beliefs
2. Re-Focusing your perceptions
3. Re-Aligning your thoughts
4. Re-Sensing your feelings
5. Re-Ordering your decisions
6. Re-Sponding your actions

For more information on retirement, check our JI Course 103: Retirement as a Spiritual Journey.