What are you going to do?
By Roger Leitch
I have lost count of how many times I have been asked this question since my retirement became known and in the weeks that followed my last day of paid work.
To be honest, I have been asking myself the same question.
Finishing work after 43 years was an emotional roller coaster.
I know people say “you will be missed” when you leave but the truth is that work will continue without us.
What I did not expect was that those well-meaning messages would get to me the way they did.
I have even received a long service award certificate signed by Sir Michael himself.
I suspect that many people who leave work find they have a gap in their lives – we miss work, not the other way around!.
So what am I doing?
I have made enquiries about working with a charity, but not heard anything yet.
I have plenty of stuff to sort out, several long delayed “projects” to complete and others that should have been started a while back.
When Jesus spoke about us doing greater things than Him, I suspect He was not referring to using a power saw.
I have a growing number of “to do lists” I am working through until I have a better idea of what I am going to do, but there is no rush into anything.
I am beginning to realise that all those retired people who said they wondered how they found time to go to work may have had a point.
So far I have not had time to watch any day time TV – fortunately that is not on any of my to do lists.
The main thing I am realising is that work was really only a part of my life – it consumed less than 1/3 of my waking hours.
Nobody has ever asked what I was going to do with the 2/3rds of the time I was not working!
If you are employed then you do usually have to be at work for a good part of several days of every week, but that still leaves you with a significant amount of time that you can choose to use in different ways. For family, for yourself, for others or for God’s Kingdom.
So whether you are employed or retired – what are you going to do?
