What Are You Retiring To?
Recalibrating in the Encore: Living with an Eternal Perspective
If we knew the day we would die, it would recalibrate everything about how we live now.
Brad Pitt and Anthony Hopkins starred in Meet Joe Black, which was released in 1998. Hopkins stars as Bill Parrish, a wealthy businessman approaching his 65th birthday party. Pitt plays Death and tells Parrish he will die immediately after the party ends. As Bill comes to grips with his pending reality, he recalibrates his company and his relationships. It culminates with the speech he delivers at the birthday party, where he says, “65 years, don’t they go by in a blink?”
If you are approaching or living in retirement, this may be exactly how you feel. As we consider how we invest the time we have left, I’d like to ask you this question:
What would it look like to recalibrate the rest of your life around what Jesus has already prepared for you to do?
Retirement is a recalibration point. An opportunity to experience more of Jesus, to transition from where God had you to where God is leading you, and to surround yourself with the people and resources for the journey ahead.
Recalibrating for More of Jesus
In his book, Recalibrate Your Life, Kenneth Boa describes the recalibration process as more than a self-help process. We do not recalibrate to optimize efficiency or to prove ourselves to others. Those motivations are exhausting and often leave us feeling like we are falling short of unspoken expectations.
We recalibrate because we desire for every season of life to bring us closer to Jesus. In the years we have left, however many remain, recalibrating aligns our lives for Jesus-glorifying fruitfulness.
“Times of change and transition in life, and even more importantly, our response to them, have a dramatic impact on the course of our journey and how we progress through life. We are recalibrating for a specific purpose: to maintain or regain an eternal, Christ-centered perspective and to apply that perspective in every component of our lives.”
Retirement is a transition of identity, meaning, and direction. The journey of retirement is moving from where God had us to where God is leading us.
We desire to experience more worship, mission, joy, focus, and purpose in this season of life than any other we have experienced. We are eager to receive and embrace the work God still has for us in the time that remains.
As you make the transition from career to retirement, consider asking Jesus these questions and being attentive to His leading:
How can I experience more of You in this transition?
How can I live with an eternal, Christ-centered perspective?
Will you show me what should increase in priority and what I should let go of?
Recalibrating our FROM/TO
The Encore of life is most meaningful when we can confidently articulate what God is leading us from and what we are moving to. Boa describes how recalibration leads us into the next chapter.
“Through recalibration you will capture a vision for the remainder of your journey on Earth, of purpose and hope-filled vision of a life in which the best is yet to come.”
A lot of people know what they’re retiring from. They are retiring from what they had to do. During the career years, financial provision was a necessary provision for family and future. Others are retiring from “the grind” or the intensity of deadlines.
The Encore of life is when we retire to what we get to do. A life of opportunity over obligation.
As Howard Graham puts it, “It’s a brand new opportunity to serve the God of do-overs.”
Too many people are retiring with the false belief that their best work is behind them when career ends because they don’t have to do anything anymore.
Living with an eternal perspective, aimed at participating in God’s work in the world, means that some of our best work is still ahead of us! If we are retiring to God’s glory, and making ourselves available to His will, then we retire with the expectation that God will do even more than I could ask or imagine.
As you approach and enter the Encore of life, ask a few questions that articulate what you’re retiring from:
What am I celebrating and commemorating about my career years?
What did I enjoy most about my career that I can keep doing in my Encore years?
How can I appreciate and recognize those who have invested in me all along the way?
As you invite God to help you articulate what we are retiring to, here are a few questions you might ask:
Which relationships and commitments will be most important to me in my Encore years?
What is God’s “hope-filled vision” for my life?
How will I describe who I am when people ask “What do you do?” about my retirement?
How do I hope God will bear fruit during this season of life?
Recalibrating in Community
I’ve been a distance runner for most of my life. One of the most meaningful motivators for keeping up my running is running with someone else. The camaraderie is essential for consistency and endurance.
Hebrews 12:1 - “Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.”
It’s possible we’ve overlooked the “us” in “let us run the race.” We don’t run the race of faith alone. We run with those God has placed around us. We run surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses.
I talk to a lot of people who think they are alone in the thoughts they experience in the retirement transition: the shift in identity, drawing down on investments after decades of paychecks, and a new definition of productivity.
When we run alongside people who share an eternal perspective, we encourage one another toward a shared purpose: to see God’s kingdom come and His will be done.
Recalibration happens in community. Ask yourself these questions as you consider your social network in the Encore:
Who do I trust to speak into my life as I make this transition?
Who will point me toward Jesus as I seek to follow Him during this season?
How frequently do I need to meet with people for encouragement, challenge, and focus?
The Recalibrating Process
People retire but purpose does not. Retirement is an opportunity to renew and refine our commitments. Boa’s invitation to recalibrate is both responding to God’s unwavering commitment to us with increasing devotion to His way, truth, and life.
Boa puts it this way: “We don’t finish well automatically or by accident. We do so when God’s faithfulness to complete His work in us meets our commitment to Him through ongoing discipline and self-control.”
Recalibration is an intentional process. We don’t drift into it.
But you don’t have to recalibrate alone. Encore offers a community and a process to help you become more intentional about following Jesus in the years ahead.
We invite you to join us on this journey. These years may go by in a blink. While we cannot determine how many remain, we can determine whether we will live them intentionally. Recalibration invites us to entrust those years to Jesus and follow wherever He leads.
Wherever you are in the process of thinking about your Encore, there are a few simple next steps to choose from:
If you’d like to talk one-on-one, I’d be glad to connect.
Or if you’d rather ease into the conversation, you’re welcome to join us for one of our weekly lunches.
