Three More Working Days until Life becomes Different

 I only have three more days of work until I retire at the end of June 2021.  It is at once comforting and also a little scary.  You always second guess yourself on whether you should have done this or not.  However, I am on a roller coaster ride to the end of this and I am going to see the changeover happen.  There is a Holmes and Rahe Stress Scale that I have been reading about.  They list 43 adult stress inducing situations that potentially lead to actual illness in an adult.  These are also ranked in order of severity.  Retirement is listed as number 10 in severity.  That is quite true given what I have been reading of people who are trying to make the decision to retire or not.

I don't think the Lord really intends for us to completely retire from working.  There is only one place in scripture where retirement, in terms of changing course in work, is mentioned.  That is in Numbers 8:23-26; where a priest who has reached the age of 50 must "retire" from active service in the temple.  If you think about it, the service that the priests did involved a lot of heavy lifting to get sacrifices up onto the alter.  In this passage, if the person wanted to continue to do things in the temple, they changed out to less physically strenuous worship activities.  In the new testament, John the Baptist's father went through this "retirement" from service once he had completed his term.

I am still getting my life thoughts together about what I will be doing, but I have decided that I need to continue to do something; even if it means to mentor younger people that I meet in coffee houses or in church.  Right now that is the focus that I will put on my life.  I will also cultivate time with family that hasn't happened for a long time since I was too busy with work to do that.  I missed a lot of chances.