My Eight ‘R’s

One of the several perceived dangers of ‘retirement’ is the concern over loss of purpose in living. After all, full time work often occupies 40 or more hours per week of the worker’s time. Adding to that, is the additional time required for work preparation each day, along with travel time to the place of work, bumping the total to perhaps 45-50 hours per week. Of course, the recent pandemic has prompted or allowed workers to be engaged at their home thus virtually eliminating travel time. If you take that work time all away, via retirement what fills it? Some sociological studies or reports indicate that men who retire at 62 have a higher likelihood of death than the general population [see “The Mortality Effects of Retirement: Evidence from Social Security Eligibility at Age 62″]. If instead of retiring from something, you instead retired to something that now fills the vacuum created by retiring from a career or occupation. Perhaps a healthier mental and physical outcome will result.

In my own case I am still working in my attorney position with my law firm but am down to part-time. I am often asked ‘how are you filling your time?’ I have developed eight ‘R’s, four of which I will share in this post and the other ones in some later post. Many of the readers of this blog are not retired and may therefore think these comments have no application to their present circumstances, but I suggest that the ‘R’s about which I write, are not related to the age of the person, or stage in life. They have a broad application so I recommend your consideration of them as I believe that implementation of one or more of them will enrich your life significantly.

My eight R’s are: reading, ‘[w]riting’, reciting, reflecting, resting, re-creating, relating, and rejoicing. I will briefly unpack the first four below.

READING–

Like most people, I learned to read as an elementary school aged child [see this inspiring and more recent, local example]. I have always loved to learn new things so my so-called ‘retirement’ simply allows me more time to pursue my love of reading. According to publishers, men typically read less books than do women, especially novels, [which I confess I don’t read many of], but there is so much knowledge available in either print format, or audio books, etc. that I confess I have been a bit perplexed when I meet a man who says he does not read much of anything, or listen to other sources of information [other than television] that could help ‘grow’ his mind. It was Desiderius Erasmus who allegedly said: “when I get a little money I buy books; and if any is left , I buy food and clothes”.

WRITING–

For me, writing is a form of expression of myself and my thoughts about life, faith, and my walk with God. Writing helps me clarify what I believe about issues that are important to me. I ‘journal’ somewhat, and write in it occasionally, but don’t otherwise keep an ‘activity diary’ as do some folks. My journals I call my ‘pensees’ [French for ‘thoughts’] which are simply a collection of my thoughts about this or that issue related to my spiritual journey through life, my observations and conclusions from my study of the scriptures and my life experiences. Returning to my journal entries written years ago, enables me to see ‘progress’ in my understanding of some issues or experiences in my life and sometimes I am “re-admonished’ by what I wrote, thus drawing helpful truths again from my prior experiences or understanding.

RECITING

In my later years, I re-discovered the great value of scripture memorization. I am not sure there is any other ‘spiritual discipline’ as effective in building myself up spiritually and mentally as does scripture memorization. I do NOT have a photographic memory, so I, like most others, have to work at memorizing anything. But I have found that there are strategic methods to help me go about this very beneficial exercise. Memorizing forces me to meditate on the passage I am learning, since I am usually learning a verse or paragraph in ‘chunks’ and not all at once. That ‘meditation’, helps me ‘extract’ more juice from the passage, so to speak, like a cow chewing its cud, and thus enabling me to dive deeper into the passage[s] and draw more nutrients into my soul. I usually recite the verses I am learning or reviewing to myself, sometimes to my wife or another person. In any event doing so has been a source of very significant encouragement to me, admonishment of myself, correcting my sometimes faulty thinking, and helping equip me better for coaching others in the journey of life. For very good reasons, the Scriptures command us to store them up in our heart e.g.: Joshua 1:8, Psalm 1:1-2, Proverbs 3:3, etc.

REFLECTION

Learning without reflection only fills ones head with information possibly leading to the risk of arrogance, and contempt of those perceived to be ‘less knowledgeable’. Reflection can also be described as contemplation, observation, thoughtfulness, or rumination. To reflect is simply to think about something more deeply. Proverbs offers several examples of the value of observation and reflection: “Go to the ant O sluggard, observe her ways and be wise, which having no chief, officer, or ruler, prepares her food in the summer and gathers her provisions in the harvest” [Prov 6:6-8]. “I passed by the field of the sluggard, and by the vineyard of the man lacking sense, and behold, it was completely overgrown with thistles; its surface was covered with nettles [weeds] and its stone wall was broken down. When I saw I reflected upon it; I looked and received instruction [i.e. by observation]. A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of he hands to rest, then your poverty will come as a robber and your want like an armed man” [Prov 14:30-34]

Retirement creates more time presumably to spend on ‘activities’ other than job/career. How you fill that time may deeply affect your mental, spiritual, emotional, and physical well being. The four ‘R’s mentioned above occupy a part of my daily life/time in my ‘slowing’ down years. But as I have determined them to be the chosen consumers of my time and remaining life, I find they are not things one should wait to do until retired but instead can be actions that most anyone can undertake during their working years, albeit with less time overall to invest in such things, things indeed that can help mold/shape us more and more into the character of Christ.

As you review this list of the first four ‘R’s, in what ways could you increase your time invested in them, whether or not you are working full time or retired? What would it take to persuade you of the great value that these four ‘R’s could bring to your spiritual life and overall well-being?

CJS