There seem to be two initial responses as one enters retirement after a long career as a pastor. For some, they are so exhausted that they want to just walk away and breathe. For others, their identity has been so focused on being a clergy, that they jump right back in to pulpit supply, interim work, etc. However, if we have been called by God, how do we now evaluate that call and how it shapes our future. The question is what is God calling you to do now?
The first action is to honor the Sabbath. Especially in the last year or so prior to retirement, the schedule is usually so heavy that we have barely had time to breathe. God’s call is associated with the Spirit of God guiding us. The word for spirit and breath being similar, there is a good analogy with our own breathing. If you have only been breathing out, you eventually run out of breath. The power of the Sabbath has always been that it is a built in interruption of our breathing out, being productive, etc. that allows us to step back and refresh our self, to breathe in. It is appropriate, as one of our first acts in retirement, to take a sabbath time to refresh ourselves. I have a pastor friend who declared that his first year of retirement was a sabbatical year. It provided an understandable response to all the requests that came in and allowed him to step back and evaluate where he felt God’s call. It also allowed him to nurture the relationships which sometimes suffer from our hectic life style.
Tomorrow we will look at the next step in responding to God’s call in retirement.
