retire or aspire

There is just so much emphasis on retirement these days.  If you're in your working years there are all kinds of ideas, plans and programs to save enough money to build the kind of retirement that you'll enjoy.  If you are near retirement there are all kinds of warnings about possibly running out of money before you die and there is a great deal of industry that caters to retirees: from medical insurance and care as our bodies creak and crack to travel options and cruises to senior living centers and considerations for assisted living, long term care and a host of services from acupuncture to exfoliation to restore youth and delay our destiny with death.  A new emphasis may be called for:  instead of focusing on the word "retire" why not focus on the word "aspire".  A quick dictionary review shows that to retire is to "withdraw from business due to age".  Of course we reach a point where we're tired of fighting the commute, fighting the parking space battle, fighting the business competition wars and fighting for raises, promotions and continued employment.  Of course there comes a time to retire.  But it occurs that there is never a time to cease to "aspire".  Consider the leading definition of this great word: to long, aim, or seek ambitiously; be eagerly desirous, esp. for something great or of high value.   There is never need to withdraw from seeking to grow in grace and knowledge and service of and for our Lord.  We could live five lifetimes and not exhaust the questions of a curious mind that longs to understand the ways of Heaven and that desires to draw ever closer.  We may tire of the work routine and our bodies surely tire as we age, but our hunger to draw ever more heavenly oriented is an ambition that we can pursue right up to the day that, either our minds no longer process thought or our bodies are ready to cross the brief threshold of death and enter the gates of glory.  We are reminded that just as work is not our highest calling, so retirement is not our crowning reward. 

A vital relationship with the living God is our highest calling and His presence and His revealed truth are our crowning reward.

 

Philippians 3:¹² Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me.

 

blessings to fellow "aspirees",

Rob Smith