Jerry Protextor stopped in my office last week. Jerry is a retired Pastor living in the area. I use the term “retired” a bit loosely.
Despite being retired, Jerry still spends two days per week at Peace Lutheran Church in Moorhead and preaches there twice per month. He is still involved in the local Stewardship committee, is a member here at Trinity Lutheran and loves spending time with his grandchildren.
As he explained this to me, I said to him, “oh, so you are ‘retired,’” using my hands to show the standard gesture for air quotes in a spot-on manner.
He responded by telling me his grandchildren explained it to him that when you are retired you aren’t supposed to work anymore.
He offered this input: “You see, Jared, when you are retired it means you no longer do the things you don’t enjoy. I still spend time at Peace Lutheran and I still spend time on the Stewardship committee. What I don’t do is look at each line of expense reports or deal with angry parents.”
My summary for Jerry is obviously paraphrased and he was more extensive on the things he enjoys and didn’t enjoy, but you get the idea.
It was truly a unique way of looking at retired life and I could tell from his tone how happy and passionate he was about the things he still does.
Trinity Lutheran Senior Pastor Steve Wold mentioned the other day he played golf with some retired friends. He said it was interesting that they no longer where a watch and that it’s a different style of living.
You may be thinking the point of this is that there are just a lot of old people surrounding Trinity, but, as a matter of fact, that is not the point.
The point is taking your free time to participate in something that you enjoy and finding ways to volunteer yourself to help and support others. It’s giving back and giving generously. And spending less time doing the things you don’t enjoy.
Below is a message from the local stewardship that pertains to giving what you can and provides a good message.
Give generously
“We want you to know…about the grace of God that has been granted to the churches of Macedonia; for during a severe ordeal of affliction, their abundant joy and their extreme poverty have overflowed in a wealth of generosity on their part.” --II Corinthians 8:1-2
Generous giving may be the most basic stewardship value. It is difficult to imagine anyone who is serious about discipleship giving stingily. It is difficult to imagine a tither who isn’t serious about his or her relationship with Jesus. In Luke 12:34, Jesus says, “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” Isn’t he saying that generous giving to Jesus has the ability to lead one’s heart to Jesus? A congregation full of generous givers would make an incredible witness to our Lord.
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