I hope to see you Tuesday at 7 pm for the 12th and final week of our Faith Study, The Year of Living Biblically: One Man's Humble Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible. Some join us in-person (Chapel), others join via the ZOOM platform https://us06web.zoom.us/j/88522517327 Meeting ID: 885 2251 7327. This week, we are focused on the August chapter. You don’t need to read the book or attend any other session to join. This will be my last session of my last faith study at Bethany.
As I was leaving the funeral reception on Sunday for the Brunswick Street United Church service, I had a conversation with a former parishioner. He shared his recent retirement. He was looking for insight on his new life.
Here is how I anticipate moving into retirement, likely when I turn 65. Three things to avoid, three things to embrace… Avoid: 1) Conspiracies. I see people slipping into an odd paranoia, born of insecurity and resentment, talking to like-minded people, about what outside forces will do to their cherished institutions. They make ridiculous claims, that frankly they would see themselves, if not for the fact they only speak to each other and repeat fallacies as truth. 2) Celebrities. Why people spend so much time and emotional energy focused on people they do not know, will never meet, is beyond me. Surely this is time that could be directed toward those in their circles of relationships. 3) Control. Why is it people need things to go their way, entirely, so much so lonely people will choose to be isolated over being involved in community where things sometimes go their way, sometimes not, most times a compromise.
Embrace: 1) Engagement. Find community, join it, discern its strangeness and beauty, see what God is doing in this Living Puzzle, the sheer unpredictability of its composition and outcomes. 2) Excitement. Express the excitement of something joy filled. I cannot fathom why, in 2024, it is somehow less irritating to complain than it is to extoll the pleasure of a treasured moment. I make it a point to be excited about experiences that bring joy if for no other reason than most of what I hear is complaints. 3) Epiphany. Ponder the epiphanies of insight, those aha moments, when God reveals a gem of clarity, as our day comes to life.
This is what I hope my retirement looks and feels like.