How to Reframe Your Golden Years for Kingdom Service: Pt. 2
When the world says stop, it’s time for your greatest impact.
To help us reframe our thinking and to respond to the challenge of the Retirement Reformation message what are the key issues to reframe?
A study and our personal observation show that health, money, and a meaningful life are the keys to a happy life after 60. I’d add that growing spiritually and emotionally are two key components to the process. When we grow spiritually and emotionally, we are more prepared to operate within God’s kingdom and demonstrate the fruits of the Spirit to the world around us. Jesus gave us these two commandments and focusing on them allows us to reflect Him to the world:
Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength, and
Love your neighbor as yourself
As you grow closer to God, these lifestyles will become the natural results. The result will be reflected in what you are passionate about, what gives you joy, and what makes you cry. The beauty of our final life stages, when we are prepared financially, is that we have the freedom to respond to God’s call and truly experience what it means to live with and for Him.
While finances and health are important, living with meaning is critical. It is living with meaning and His purpose that provides passion And it is this passion that provides the energy and perseverance needed to aggressively reflect Jesus to the world.
Let’s briefly outline the three stages of retirement so we can understand the real context for our Reframation:
1. Active Application: Approximately ages 65-67. Prepared, energetic, ready to start new things, strongly supports Kingdom focused programs, identifies needs and helps address them. Active, forward looking, and operating with the wisdom provided by a lifetime of experience and God’s direction through the messaging of the Holy Spirit.
2. Mentoring: Approximately ages 78-87. Now at the peak of your insight, understanding, and closeness to God, you have the ability to speak into the most difficult of inter-personal relationships and represent Jesus, speaking truth into the complexities of life. You are able and willing to mentor those younger and respond with love and insight to those older generations struggling with life’s issues.
3. Sharing: With a lifetime in the rear-view mirror, you are in position to share God’s wisdom with all those coming behind you. You understand God’s principles and can share how they apply to our current culture and Kingdom challenges.
The Retirement Reformation Manifesto addresses the 10 key issues and challenges of our time. It outlines the 10 key principles and cornerstones upon which to build your Reframation for Kingdom duty.
Each of the 10 principles address a vital element and commits to a new way of thinking and acting. You can use Scripture, the Manifesto, and input from key thought leaders in this area. You can connect with the Manifesto at RetirementReformation.org.
Here is the short version of the 10 principles:
This Manifesto aims to unite a movement to reform our cultural concept of retirement. In this reformation, Christ followers are coming together to affirm their allegiance to God, commitment to Jesus’ direction, and alignment with His design for life and living, including bearing fruit without measure.
Those who sign this manifesto assert the Biblical truth that Christ redeemed us to bear fruit in every season of life and affirm this belief with the following 10 commitments:
Freedom
We live for more than our culture’s definition and expectations of retirement.
Preparation
We choose to enter each new season with a God-directed vision of His preferred future for us.
Contentment
We embrace the promise of the fruits of the Spirit and reject the self-indulgent trappings of retirement.
Stewardship
We realize retirement may extend for thirty years or longer.
Love
We acknowledge that people matter to God, and we cultivate our hearts for others.
Community
We need community and connection with others in authentic relationships.
Intentionality
We recognize that our calling ends at death—not retirement.
Focus
We intentionally focus our activities on Kingdom building activities.
Service
We live on mission for Jesus, representing Him to others.
Advocacy
We resolve to encourage others to find meaning and purpose in following God’s design.
We recognize that it is the power of Jesus that allows us to live with faith and experience fulfillment in every season of life.
So, how do you reframe your Golden Years for Kingdom Service?
Here is an action plan to begin your process:
1. Understand the reality of retirement in our times. Both it’s length and challenges.
2. Embrace the fact that God has a plan for life, with each stage and for every time frame. We are to be faithful for a lifetime, not just a season.
3. Stay in the scripture and listen for the voice of the Holy Spirit directing your paths.
4. Know yourself, how God has prepared you, and what stirs your passion.
5. Accept that we will always work, it is just what we are working on and for what that makes the difference.
6. Aggressively pursue options available and remember, that God does not steer a parked car.
7. And feel good about taking some time for rest, a time to refresh, a time to explore the world and your family.
There are so many needs and ways to build the Kingdom. If you follow the path outlined above you will find the way to meaning, purpose and how you will serve the Kingdom.
Reframe, refresh and re-fire. The last 30 years and each of the last stages of your life will bear the fruit Jesus outlined for us: joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness and self-control What a way to live! The results of your Reframation.
Connect with more great content to help you with your Reframation at http://www.retirementreformation.org/. Look for Bruce Bruinsma’s book The Retirement Reformation being released in summer of 2019.