Thrive In RetirementSample

Go the Distance

In a race, the runners may be tired, but they muster up extra resolve to push harder than ever as they approach the finish line. This is how an older man, Paul, spoke to his younger friend and understudy Timothy. He described his life as a race that he ran until the very end. In another of his comments to Timothy, Paul in 2 Timothy 3:10 told how his faith, love, and purpose enabled him to run with endurance. In 1 Corinthians 9:24, he said he ran to win a prize. 

Thinking of your later life as running a race with discipline is the opposite of ordinary thinking that retirement only means leisure. In sports, the end of a game is often the most exciting, whether basketball or an Olympic foot race. Athletes turn up their determination and give their very best as they near the end of the game. Look at your life that way. The end of the game means it is time to muster up your best. Run the race. Live fully. Thrive for all the days of your life and finish your race well.

Here’s my final piece of advice: Decide how your story ends. You write the last chapter. You’ve read books and watched movies with endings that finally enabled the plots to make sense. Disconnected and confusing scenes from earlier parts of the stories finally resolve. 

Will your life make sense? It will with the right ending. How will you write the conclusion of your story? If you’ve had a tough life, write a surprise ending. Have it turn out happier than expected. Or, if you’ve had a great life to this point, take care to finish it well. 

Herman Melville, who wrote the whaling novel Moby Dick, said, “To know how to grow old is the master work of wisdom, and one of the most difficult chapters in the great art of living.” 

Happiness resides inside you. Whether your think of your life as the heroic conclusion of a race or the delightful last chapter of a long story, end well. Learn to cultivate the delights that satisfy deeply within. You are meant to thrive!

How did your perspective on aging change through reading this devotional? How will you keep building on your understanding of God’s design for aging?