Tuesday, June 07, 2011

Retirement

There is one Biblical reference to retirement on any grounds other than ill health. And it's in Luke 12.

Then Jesus said to them, “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; life does not consist in an abundance of possessions.” And he told them this parable: “The ground of a certain rich man yielded an abundant harvest. He thought to himself, ‘What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.’
“Then he said, ‘This is what I’ll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store my surplus grain. And I’ll say to myself, “You have plenty of grain laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.”’
“But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’
“This is how it will be with whoever stores up things for themselves but is not rich toward God.”
Luke 12:15-21, NIV

And it's great to see that John Piper's on the same page...

HT to What's Best Next? for the video.

4 comments:

the Jog said...

Good post John - and good clip. But it's not just golf: there are the hospital appointments, the test results, the grandchildren as retirement occupation. And the funerals of friends. But I hope there is time for living - for others, and to show what we treasure.

John said...

Oh - I completely agree. There's lots of scope for retiring from paid work to do other useful stuff. I know a few couples who have retired from paid work to work on the mission field, and so on.

I think what Piper is attacking is the idea that we should aim to spend 20 years or so taking life easy, eating, drinking and being merry. Spending 20 years trying to help your friends get ready to meet their Maker is completely different...

the Jog said...

Absolutely.

John said...

I was wrong.

Numbers 8:25 says that priests should retire at 50.