Die Bloody

Good Morning,

This picture captures what I want my life to look like on the day God calls me home. To me it symbolizes someone who has stayed in the game and dies in action.  I often refer to it as dying bloody. I don’t want a picture with me on the front porch with my feet up, drinking lemonade.

I didn’t always feel this way. Like many boomers I thought the ideal was to work hard, save much and then retire.  The earlier you retired the more successful you had been. Life would look like a lowering golf score, traveling abroad and eating fine food.  Don’t get me wrong, I like traveling and eating fine food and there isn’t anything wrong with that.  But there is something that has become increasingly nonsensical to me about this ideal.

When I read Scripture the idea of what we in America think of as traditional retirement doesn’t seem to be in there.  I don’t find an age restriction of laboring for the King.  I don’t find a teaching that tells me I have a certain number of years I’m expected to have impact, followed by stepping off to the side so someone else can have impact.  I don’t see examples of finely tuned, well managed lives centered on maximum comfort with as little disruption as possible.

What’s more, even without bringing Scripture into it, I have seen far too many people work like crazy, retire and then die shortly.  I’ve seen too many root their identity in what they are doing for a living and when they quit working don’t know who they are or what they have to offer.  Not only is that sad, it is a waste. I believe we are called to more than that.  I believe we are meant for more than that.

The examples of people I see commended in the Bible are those who finished well. At the end of their days they were still engaged in meaningful living.  And by meaningful, I mean a life focused on people other than ourselves, and on things that will live on after us. Ironically, those I’ve seen live this way often (genetic factors not withstanding) seem to live longer and much happier lives.

This past Christmas I began to write down a list of things I have come to believe as true and accurate.  Some are simply observations about life 60 plus years in.  I’ll close with one of these and you can do with it what you want this morning. 

Working hard just so you can eventually quit working is not very bright. - RK

Live this week on purpose,
Ron Klopfenstein