Draft of the chapter on leisure

The following is my current draft of a chapter on leisure in retirement. It is somewhat based on a paper I wrote for seminary on the relationship between 21^st-Century American leisure and the Biblical concepts of sabbath and rest. I took that paper and made it more specific to retirement and less formal. For example, in the research paper I was not allowed to use I, we, or you. I'm not happy with it, but I need to move on for now. 

Some of the resources I used for this chapter

One problem I often encounter in writing is that the more I work on something, the more familiar it becomes and the less I like it. Generally, that means it is time to put it aside for a while. I think the chapter is too long and still too stilted and academic for the intended audience of the book. Some of that I can solve by using more indirect quotes leading to fewer footnotes or endnotes. I’d like to add some more examples from people like you. Finally, it will need additional passes to tighten it up, make the language more approachable, rearrange and shorten some of the sections (or move them to other chapters), and make the chapter even more specific to retirement. Despite those deficiencies, I wanted to get folks’ feedback while I moved on to other tasks such as writing the introduction and a preliminary outline. 

Please note that the footnotes are a little weird, but I could not figure out how on this blog to make them superscript numbers rather than Roman numerals. They look fine in my Word document! 

Please send me any thoughts, questions, or suggestions you may have. The best way for me is for you to email me at bill@catchings.com. I need all the help I can get!

By the way, I always try to come up with some sort of picture for blog entries. At least this time it is not a picture with me in it! These won’t be in the actual book. 

 

Leisure: God’s Gift or Satan’s Snare

My grandfather retired in the 1970s to one of the first large retirement communities in New Jersey named Leisure Village. He played pinochle, acted in plays, traveled widely, and generally took advantage of all the leisure such a community had to offer. For many people, retirement and leisure are almost synonymous. The prevailing thinking is that once you retire you will finally have the time to travel, play golf, indulge in hobbies, nap, or do whatever it is that you have long wanted to do. Retirement means living a life of leisure.

            Statistics back up that prevailing view. U.S. News and World Report looked at the data on people of retirement age (65+) from the 2023 American Time Use Survey. One of the key findings was that retirees spend about seven hours a day on leisure activities such as watching TV, socializing, doing hobbies, using devices (computers, phones, etc.), and reading. The only category consuming more time was personal care which includes sleeping. Organizational, civic, and religious activities were on average about half an hour per day.[i] Barry Manilow’s 1970s jingle for McDonalds told us that we deserve a break today. For retirees, that seems to be most of the day!

            Is that what God would have us to do with so much of our time? While that question is important for Christians at any age, it is particularly so for retirees whose leisure time largely consumes the time that used to be dedicated to working. God created us and understood our needs. He also created the sabbath and rest. He knew that we needed rest to function as He intended. To try and fulfill that need, we have substituted leisure for rest. That leisure often is not restful and falls short of God’s intended purposes. A proper Biblical perspective on leisure can restore God’s original intent.

Unfortunately, not much has been written on the relationship between leisure and biblical rest. This handful of books all seem to refer to each other. They even all seem to start with a lament about how little has been written on the subject. Typical is Paul Heintzman’s comment in Leisure and Spirituality: Biblical, Historical, and Contemporary Perspectives. Heintzman is a theologian who specializes in leisure studies. He states, “there is a paucity of theological and ethical guidance on leisure.”[ii] Despite the lack of sufficient serious consideration regarding a proper Christian view of leisure, it is possible amongst the weariness of 21^st-Century American life to enjoy Jesus’ promised rest (Matt 11:28).[iii]

God instituted the sabbath and explained the importance of rest for His people early in the book of Genesis. The first mention of rest is in Genesis 2:1-3 which explains that God rested from His creative work on the seventh day. (Lest anyone be confused, Isaiah 40:28 makes clear God does not get tired!) The word sabbath does not appear in these verses, but the word translated as “rested” in verses 2 and 3 shares the same Hebrew root word, “shabbat” which is most commonly translated elsewhere in the Bible as ceased. Heintzman argues that when God ceased from his creative work, he returned to His natural state of rest. So too as God’s image bearers, we naturally need rest. Further, the first full day of Adam’s and Eve’s lives was a day of rest. Thus, the work in the garden they were called to do followed that rest.[iv]

There is no clear evidence in Genesis of God’s people observing the sabbath. Some theologians do, however, see some indications. After all, before God gave the ten commandments, Cain knew that murder was wrong. Something similar could be argued about observing the sabbath. Regardless of whether God’s people observed the sabbath in Genesis, God does make very clear the importance of the sabbath after they leave captivity in Egypt. God first details in the fourth commandment (Exodus 20:8-11) the importance of the sabbath day. Unlike most of the commandments, it includes both details about its implementation and an explanation of the rationale by recapitulating Genesis 2:1-3. In that explanation, the sabbath is described as blessed and holy.

God reinforces and expands on the importance of and rationale for the sabbath later in Exodus and in Deuteronomy. Exodus 31:12-17 indicates that sabbath observance is an eternal sign between God and the sons of Israel that they may know that He sanctifies them. The last verse in the passage also adds a detail to the Genesis account saying that God was refreshed. Deuteronomy 5:12-15 states that His people are to remember their slavery in Egypt and how He brought them out of it. These three passages combine to give blessing, holiness, sanctification, refreshment, and remembrance as reasons for observing the sabbath.

The Bible authors also talk about rest apart from the sabbath. Bible verses such as Psalms 23:1-3 and Proverbs 3:24 emphasize the importance of rest. The still or quiet waters of Psalm 23:2 are literally “waters of rest” in Hebrew. These passages describe rest and restoration for the stressed and weary souls of the people of God.

In the New Testament, Jesus assures His followers that they can find rest in Him (Matthew 11:28-30). Verse 28’s wonderful message calling “all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest,” is one from which many Christians over the centuries have taken comfort. All of Jesus’ followers can be comforted by His promise in verse 29 to “find rest for your souls.” Jesus understood the weariness of His followers both then and now.  

The author of Hebrews looks at rest in 4:1-11. Heintzman notes that the author connects the rest of Psalm 95:11 and that of Genesis 2 as a type of God’s creation rest. He further emphasizes that this rest is available in the present, not just in the future.[v] Ben Witherington, III, a professor of New Testament Interpretation, sees the author of Hebrews calling us to “enter that eschatological rest of God – not as a resting place or resting time, but as a state of being, living by faith, with the peace of Christ in our hearts, looking forward without anxiety about the future, because the future is as bright as God’s promises and dawning Kingdom.” [vi] He thinks that “the author of Hebrews is not talking about taking a day off, or sleeping, or sabbatarian practice. He is talking about entering God’s rest, and according to Hebrews 4:3 the key to having done so is believing.”[vii]

One of the key things to understand is that there is a difference between rest and sloth. Jesus speaks of a light and easy yoke, but even such a yoke still requires effort. Passages like Proverbs 6:6-11 make clear that while rest is part of God’s plan, sloth is not. Witherington contends that in this passage “there is a difference between necessary rest and pure laziness.… What is interesting about this [passage] is that it distinguishes sleep from rest and so should we…. We need both rest and sleep.”[viii] (We’ll look more at this topic in the chapter on idleness.)

As is often the case, the human response to clear instruction from God is to try and figure it out on one’s own. Rather than God’s commandment to set aside a sabbath day each week and His invitation to enjoy rest, we strive after leisure. In the US alone, DataCube Research estimates the leisure market to be $1.82T in 2025. The leisure market is expanding rapidly with a projected compound annual growth rate of more than 6% over the next eight years.[ix] Those figures do not include related markets such as entertainment that might be considered part of leisure.

One of the factors driving the leisure market is the available amount of leisure time most Americans, and retirees in particular, have. The latest data from US Bureau of Labor Statistics show Americans of retirement age (65 and older) spend about seven hours per day on leisure activities. Leisure activities in the survey include watching TV, playing games, socializing, reading, and exercising. Generally, leisure time seems to be considered synonymous with free time.[x] Leland Ryland, a professor emeritus of English, disagrees and thinks “leisure is more than nonwork. It is an actively chosen, positive use of time for personal enrichment. Judged by such a standard, much of what passes for leisure is less than leisure.”[xi]

Despite the amount of time retired Americans spend in leisure activities, we are anything but rested or relaxed. Numerous studies have chronicled the negative aspects of retirement. A 2013 study by Britian’s Institute of Economic Affairs and the Age Endeavour Fellowship on economics, health, age, and government policy included disturbing findings for retired people in Great Britain. They include that retirement

·         decreases the likelihood of being in ‘very good’ or ‘excellent’ self-assessed health by about 40%,

·         increases the probability of suffering from clinical depression by about 40%, and

·         increases the probability of suffering from clinical depression by 17%.[xii]

Anecdotally, it is hard to find any of my retired friends who claim to be well rested. Modern-day leisure has not shown itself to be equal to the weariness of the times. We are anything but rested.

Unfortunately, the American church has not been spared from society’s seduction by leisure.  Ryken notes the church’s ambivalence and confusion throughout history about the role of leisure in Christian life. He bluntly states, “The church has never been able to make up its mind about leisure. The Bible says little about leisure directly. Christians through the centuries have also said and thought little about it, preferring to feel guilty about time spent in leisure.”[xiii]

Ryken goes on to blame the church for not adequately addressing the topic of leisure. He maintains that the church has instead ceded the discussion of leisure to the secular world. In doing his research on leisure he found that “the number of secular books and articles far outnumbers those written from a Christian perspective. When I came to integrate the data of the secular sources with the Christian faith, I often found myself working in a vacuum.”[xiv]

Consequently, Christians see no alternative to the world’s view of leisure and tend to go along with it. Ryken thinks that Christians “pursue their leisure activities without a thought about the morality of what they are doing or whether it is a good use of time. To put it another way, the constraints on most people’s leisure are constraints of time and money, not of religious or moral conscience.”[xv]

Ryken asserts that God’s example of rest from Genesis 2 is critical to a proper understanding of leisure, “What, then, does God’s rest from work say about leisure? It affirms leisure by drawing a boundary around human work and acquisitiveness. Like God’s rest, leisure frees us from the need to produce and allows us instead to enjoy what has already been made.”[xvi] Unfortunately, Christians do not hear that message from the pulpit or from Christians resources that they may read. 

One such resource is Leonard Doohan’s small (100 pages) book from 1990, Leisure: A Spiritual Need. He is a professor emeritus of religious studies and does an excellent job of exploring what biblical leisure should look like. He contends it is an essential need that Christians must have to be in a right place with God. He thinks Christians need to get past their fear of not accomplishing things to commune with God. He says, “To fail to see the value of simply being with God and ‘doing nothing’ is to miss the heart of Christianity. We need leisure to be with God.”[xvii] 

Doohan compares our attitudes toward work and ministry to that of workaholic husband who loses touch with his family. “The Christian who drives himself or herself all day and then falls asleep during an attempt at prayer is familiar. ‘Lord, I offer my fatigue and effort.’ Good, but it may not in every case be the most authentic prayer. Prayer and contemplation need leisure.”[xviii]

Doohan goes on to give an excellent explanation of what true leisure is not. It includes things like “not merely a time to restore lost energies,” “not the restless pursuit and fanatical enjoyment of leisure goods and activities,” “not merely the relaxation necessary to maintain intense work,” and “not the empty stupor produced by the misuse or excessive use of tranquilizers, alcohol, or prolonged hours of inane television.” [xix] An updated version would certainly have included time doom-scrolling on phones, tablets, and laptops.

John Mark Comer is a Christian author who opens the first chapter of A Ruthless Elimination of Hurry with a story about Dallas Willard (noted for his contributions to Christian spiritual formation) as related to him by megachurch pastor John Ortberg. Ortberg was faced with rising fame and success at Willow Creek Community Church in Chicago and asked Willard how cope with all of that. Willard’s response was, “You must ruthlessly eliminate hurry from your life.” When asked for more details, Willard responded with, “There is nothing else. Hurry is the great enemy of spiritual life in our day. You must ruthlessly eliminate hurry from your life.”[xx] His wisdom is true at any point in our lives but seems especially applicable to retirees.

God was not in a hurry when he ceased His labors after six days of creation. Jesus had a busy schedule that somehow did not force Him to hurry. When He heard that Lazarus was dying, he stayed two days where He was before going to Bethany to resurrect him (John 11:6). When crowds of people were gathering to hear Him speak, He would slip away and pray (Luke 5:13). While it is not hard to find reasons Jesus might have done these things other than being unhurried, it is hard to feel that Jesus was in a hurry. Amidst the whirlwind of His 3-year, itinerant ministry, He walked not ran, stopped to talk and heal, and took time to eat with friends.

Doohan is a professor at Gonzaga University, and, like some of the other writers on Christian leisure, a Catholic. As such, he emphasizes contemplative practices more than many Evangelicals may be comfortable. There is, however, much wisdom in what he has to say. He asserts that leisure should be “the relaxation of time, creative self-development, and a self-tailored approach to life that always enriches all of one’s personality.”[xxi] He sees spirituality, worship, and prayer as deeply entwined with what he calls sabbatical living—a life of pausing, resting, refocusing, worshipping, and celebrating life with God.

Crucially, the first step is pausing from the hurry and business of everyday, modern life. Once that is done, Doohan (with a real flair for alliteration) thinks Christian leisure consists of resting, reading, relaxing, recreating, rethinking, rejoicing, and refocusing, which all combine to cause personal renewal. He cautions against compulsiveness and complaining as enemies of such leisure.[xxii] His concluding words are that “leisure is a necessary dimension of wellness and holistic living … a necessary part of life [that] cannot be done for us by someone else, but rather results exclusively from individual decision, selection, and implementation.”[xxiii]

We need to understand that leisure is not intrinsically good or bad but should not dominate our retirement life. God did not rest forever after his creative activities, nor should we once we retire. We may need more rest as we age and can be thankful that we have more time for leisure, but retirement cannot be solely about leisure, by any definition of the term. Work time should not all become leisure time when we retire. Instead, we need to balance such activities with what God has called us to in retirement. We may even be able use those leisure activities as points of contact with other people God puts in our lives.

Hobbies are an example of a potential restful, leisure activity that retirement readily affords more time to enjoy, and share with others. Merriam-Webster’s definition of a hobby is “a pursuit outside one's regular occupation engaged in especially for relaxation.” Some of my hobbies are cycling, reading (for pleasure not necessarily to learn), and model trains. Cycling gets me good exercise and a set of friends outside of church. Reading for pleasure allows me to learn history and experience places that I will never visit (especially those in space or fantasy worlds). Making small models for my N scale trains gives me a tactile creative outlet. I find all these hobbies relaxing and restorative. The challenge, of course, is to not let them grow to consume all my life. Or to allow them to become obsessive such as concentrating on achieving difficult cycling goals.

David Platt is a pastor who has seen people grapple with the proper role of hobbies. His online article on hobbies becoming idols addresses the tricky issues people face without vilifying hobbies. He says,

Every good thing we enjoy in life is a gift from God (James 1:17), including our hobbies. Whether that’s sports, music, fishing, reading, etc., we were made to enjoy God through the things He has made. However, due to the remaining sin in our lives, we also have to be on guard against turning our hobbies into idols. It’s all too easy to begin enjoying and worshipping the gift while ignoring the Giver.[xxiv]

He encourages Christians to examine their hobbies in terms of what they think about, talk about, an spend money on. If our examination reveals the answer is our hobby rather than our God, the hobby has become an idol. I can see where each of my hobbies has at times flirted with that line. He instead instructs us to use our hobbies to draw attention to God, reveal His greatness, and lead others to Him.

Kyle Worley was a student pastor when he wrote an article using the hobby of video games as his springboard. While he aimed his words largely at students, the prevalence of phone-based games like Candy Crush has become very prevalent among retirees. He looked at whether a hobby is a gift or a god. He sees one of the big issues as one of self-control. Are we in control of the hobby or does it control us? He sees hobbies as legitimate rest, but that rest doesn’t “exempt us from the ongoing mission of God in our home, church, and community.” He also sees hobbies as a great way to involve others.[xxv] If you play video games use that as an excuse to connect with younger people. Or, if you read books, join a book club. Whatever your hobby or activity, using them to connect with others can further God’s mission.

Worley correctly understood that phones, tablets, and computers are not just an issue for the young. Retirees are quickly becoming some of the biggest users of them. An article in The Economist looks specifically at the use of these devices by retirees. It states, “As today’s 60-somethings, already familiar with digital technology, enter retirement, time spent on smart devices is shooting up among the elderly. Some older adults ‘are increasingly living their lives through their phones, the way teenagers or adolescents sometimes do’, says Ipsit Vahia, head of the Technology and Ageing Laboratory at McLean Hospital, part of Harvard Medical School. The digital habits that have transformed the teenage years are now coming to old age.” The article contends that the elderly are the “real screen addicts.”[xxvi]

One thing we all should do, retired or not, is understand how much time we spend on our devices. Phones and tablets can tell you how much time we spend using them and on what apps. Smartphones make this easy to do. Go to your phone’s “Settings.” On iPhones and iPads, select “Screen Time” and then “See All App & Website Activity.” For Android devices, select “Digital Wellbeing & Parental Controls” and tap the resulting chart. If you are like me, the data will be convicting. Sure, some of the time was using my Bible app, but most of it was not!

Just like leisure in general, we can’t allow our phones to rule our lives and ruin our rest. Here are a few ideas that can help with that:

·         Don’t take your phone to bed. If you use it as your alarm clock, buy a cheap alarm clock instead. If you need to be able to be contacted in an emergency, use something like the phones do not disturb settings to restrict trivial access.  

·         Don’t have phones at the dinner table.

·         When you are with someone else leave your phone in your pocket or purse.

·         Ask permission before picking up your phone if you are with someone.

·         Turn off notifications for as many things as possible.

·         Set app timers or limits for apps you can’t resist, just like parents can do with their children.

While leisure can be an important part of resting, it cannot fulfill all that God intended for us in terms of sabbath rest. This is especially true for retirees as weekdays and weekends (including the sabbath) are more likely to be indistinguishable from each other. We need to develop the spiritual discipline of sabbath rest. There are good resources for doing this, but here is a simple idea for starting small. Start by putting aside time (maybe half an hour or an hour) on Sunday (or some other day if Sunday is not possible) to not do your normal activities, maybe after dinner or before church. Just spend the time reading Scripture, listening to Christian music, praying, or chatting with friends. There is no need to get carried away like the Pharisees of Jesus’ day, but God’s desire for us to put aside the normal rhythms of the day is still healthy as that is how he created us to live.

From the beginning, God created His people to rest and observe His sabbath. Old Testament passages include blessing, holiness, sanctification, refreshment, and remembrance as reasons for observing the sabbath. Psalms and Proverbs encourage rest while warning against sloth. Jesus promises rest for the weary and a light and easy yoke. In modern times, the secular American response to the consequences of the lack of the rest Jesus promised has been to emphasize leisure. Many retirees no longer need to spend much of their day working and have leaned hard into leisure as the answer. Statistics show that leisure is not making Americans (both retired and still working) feel any sense of rest, rather weariness, exhaustion, and burnout. Christians have not done a good job of offering an alternative. Consequently, we are still weary, exhausted, and burned out. A healthier alternative of Christian leisure is possible. The key elements are to avoid hurry, keep leisure in its proper balance, and focus on activities that enable rest, recreation, prayer, and renewal. God’s commandment to rest and observe the sabbath is as valid today as it was in the beginning. God’s people need to embrace the light and easy yoke that Jesus promises to experience His rest.

---

[i] Rachel Hartman, “12 Ways Retirees Spend Their Newfound Free Time,” U.S. News & World Report, September 2024. https://money.usnews.com/money/retirement/articles/ways-retirees-spend-their-newfound-free-time.

[ii] Paul Heintzman, Leisure and Spirituality: Biblical, Historical, and Contemporary Perspectives (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2015), xxiv.

[iii] All Scripture references, unless noted otherwise, are from Holy Bible: New American Standard Bible (LaHabra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995).

[iv] Heintzman, 87-89.

[v] Heintzman, 112-115.

[vi] Ben Witherington, III, The Rest of Life: Rest, Play, Eating, Studying, Sex from a Kingdom Perspective. (Grand Rapids, MI: W.B. Eerdmans Pub. Co., 2012), 37.

[vii] Witherington, 25. 

[viii] Witherington, 23. 

[ix] Joseph Gomes, “US Leisure Market Size | 2019-2033,” DataCube Research, June 2025,  https://www.datacuberesearch.com/us-leisure-market.

[x] “Time Spent in Leisure and Sports in 2024,” Bureau of Labor Statistics, September 2025, https://www.bls.gov/opub/ted/2025/time-spent-in-leisure-and-sports-in-2024.htm. 

[xi] Leland Ryken, Redeeming the Time: A Christian Approach to Work and Leisure. (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 1996). Kindle edition, 61.

[xii] Gabriel H. Sahlgren, “Work longer, live healthier: The relationship between economic activity, health, and government policy,” Age Endeavor Foundation and Institute of Economic Affairs, February 2013,  https://iea.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/Work%20Longer,%20Live_Healthier.pdf.

[xiii] Ryken, 11.

[xiv] Ryken, 145.

[xv] Ryken, 92.

[xvi] Ryken, 166.

[xvii] Leonard Doohan, Leisure: A Spiritual Need (Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock Publishers, 2016), 20.

[xviii] Doohan, 22.

[xix] Doohan, 26-28.

[xx] John Mark Comer, The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry: How to Stay Emotionally Healthy and Spiritually Alive in the Chaos of the Modern World (Colorado Springs: WaterBrook, 2019), Kindle edition, 19.

[xxi] Doohan, 31-32.

[xxii] Doohan, 88-91.

[xxiii] Doohan, 100.

[xxiv] David Platt, “Keeping Our Hobbies from Becoming Our Idols,” Radical, February 2020, https://radical.net/article/keeping-our-hobbies-from-becoming-idols/.

[xxv] Kyle Worley, “Is your hobby a ‘gift’ or a ‘god’?”, Biblical Recorder, May 2013, https://www.brnow.org/opinions/voices-opinion/Is-your-hobby-a-gift-or-a-god/.

[xxvi] “Meet the real screen addicts: the elderly,” The Economist, October 2025,  https://www.economist.com/international/2025/10/23/meet-the-real-screen-addicts-the-elderly.

Biblical retirement book update

I am long overdue (almost a year since my last post) on giving you all an update on my book on biblical retirement. As those of you who’ve spent time with me over the past year are painfully aware, this book is something I have been thinking (and talking) about incessantly. Before authoritatively writing such a book, however, I became convinced that I needed to increase my knowledge of the Bible and earn some credentials. I decided the best way to do so was to attend a local seminary (Shepherds Theological Seminary). I recently finished my first year (of two) with the goal of getting a Master of Arts in Theological Studies. So far, I’ve taken two semesters of courses on the New Testament and theology as well as ones on writing biblical research papers and developing a mature spiritual life.

Pausing from writing the book and this blog entry

I’ve thoroughly enjoyed the experience, though it did take some time to get used to being a student again. It’s been a while! In my first class, the professor asked how many years it had been since each of us had been an undergraduate. I won with a gap of 45 years, though I did attend Gordon Conwell Theological Seminary about 25 years ago before work made continuing impossible. Fortunately, I was able to apply a couple of those courses to my current degree. 

I learned a lot, both biblically and theologically, over the past year. I also have a better understanding of what I need to do to write a book that is not simply my opinions, but one that is truly biblically based. Along the way, I did my best to turn class papers into raw material for the book whenever I could. For example, I had to do a biblical research paper on a topic of my choosing, so I tackled the topic of leisure versus rest and the sabbath. I plan to use much of that for a chapter on leisure in retirement.

I’m off from school over the summer and hoping to make solid progress writing the book. I’m still plenty busy enjoying my grandchildren, working with the youth group at my church, and serving at a local food pantry (With Love From Jesus). Both of those ministries have also given me the opportunity to rekindle my love of public speaking by giving talks. I need to write one for Wednesday morning once I finish this blog! I’ve also joined a local writers’ group in Wilmington.

I’m planning to try an experiment by writing the book in front of you all. My goal is to do a weekly blog that will include material from the book as well as some behind-the-scenes looks at what writing this book is like. My hope is to get your feedback and insights, whether you are retired or are still in the planning or preparation stages.

Much of the book will need to be about what the Bible says about retirement, both directly (very little) and indirectly by applying general biblical principles to retirement. Seminary is helping me do that. I also feel it would be good to include other people’s experiences about retirement and preparing for it. That is another area where I would like your help. I'd love your thoughts on questions like, what surprised you about retirement? What has been difficult? What do you wish you had known before retiring? What are you worried/scared about when you retire? What would you find useful to read about? Please send me any thoughts or anecdotes as well as how anonymous you would like to remain if I use what you send.

Next week, I plan to share an early draft of a section of the book. 

 

Motivation

Six months ago, I wrote of my intent to write a blog entry every month about a Biblical view of retirement with the hope of one day turning the material into a book. It doesn't take a particularly astute reader to notice that I have not published anything since. The opening phrase in my last sentence in that blog foreshadowed the issue, “Just to keep me motivated…” 

One person did ask me where the next blog was, but that was obviously not enough motivation. It's not that I didn’t work on researching and writing about retirement. I found lots of data on retirement that detailed people’s expectations (largely unrealistic), disappointments (rather depressing), and triumphs (eventually, most folks figure things out). I outlined the first few blogs about what people think retirement will be, the Biblical importance of work, and the general lack of spiritual plans for retirement. I put together a list of topics to cover like building a spiritual plan, having time to spare (and share), changing identity, renegotiating marital roles, learning to help rather than lead, and understanding the role of hobbies and leisure. 

What I didn’t do was actually finish anything. Why not? Excellent question! Sure, I’ve been busy serving weekly at a charity, working with the church youth group (including writing and giving four talks), traveling, spending time with grandkids, and catching up on a bunch of projects around the house. But in truth, I have had time. 

My best answer comes from something that I had on the wall above my computer during my years of being self-employed. It was not a Bible verse, but a Calvin and Hobbes comic. 

The Bible seems to mostly address the issue as one of laziness such as Proverbs 20:4, “The sluggard does not plow after the autumn, So he begs during the harvest and has nothing.” While laziness may well be part of my issue, I don’t think that is the bulk of it. One of the challenges of retirement is that if you have successfully planned for it financially, the need for the "harvest" is not driving your actions. Since I don't have to work to pay my bills, I have the freedom to spend my time doing things I like such as ride my bike, read, watch movies, or play video games. None of these things are necessarily wrong or bad, but I don't think they are what God has called me to spend too much of my time doing. 

James 4:17 says, “Therefore, to one who knows the right thing to do and does not do it, to him it is sin.” Ouch. Simply put, whatever the issue is, I need to solve it. 

I’m starting seminary classes in a few weeks, in part because I know having deadlines will force me to get things done. I’d love to hear from any of you regarding what you do to motivate yourself to do the things you feel God has called you to do. 

Hopefully, writing this will help me feel motivated to write more! 

Writing about Biblical retirement

I’ve been retired for 16 months. Overall, it has been great, but not without its challenges. There are quite a few things I wish I had known before I retired. There are also questions I’m still trying to figure out. 

Is retirement about hobbies like model railroading?

I'm planning to look at questions like does the Bible forbid retirement? Is retirement the reward for carefully managing my money? What exactly is retirement? Who am I if I'm not working? What should or shouldn't I do with my time? 

I’ve put a decent bit of time into thinking, talking with folks, and reading about retirement. I intend to do more of all three to better understand my retirement considering what the Bible directly says about retirement (very little) and general Biblical principles. 

My plan is to write at least one blog entry a month. (Yes, I barely managed to finish the first one before the end of January!) I’m hoping that these blogs will either give me a good start for a book or convince myself that writing one would be a bad idea. 

What I would love is to hear from any of you about your thoughts on retirement. Please share in the comments, or directly to my email (bill@catchings.com), your experiences, fears, hard-learned lessons, and dreams. Please also let me know if there are any topics you’d like me to try and include. My hope is that we can help each other prepare better for, enjoy more of, and serve God through retirement. 

Just to keep me motivated, please ask me in the coming months where the next installment is!

Hope in America

Yesterday, David A. French wrote an article titled This July Fourth, Meet Three Americas: The red, the blue, and the tired. His basic premise is that everyone wants to talk about the Right and the Left and the evils of one side or the other. He also thinks, however, that there is a third America, the “exhausted majority” who are tired of the polarization of America. His final paragraph reads, “This July Fourth, I’m both proud to be an American and convinced that our best days can still lie ahead of us. But not if we’re too tired to engage. The exhausted majority has to get energetic, even if only for a time, to rescue America from the friends, families, and neighbors who are tearing it apart.”

Today, the Fourth of July, I spent with what felt like that third America and it was proud and decidedly energetic to be American. I spent the day in my hometown of Milltown, NJ. It is a town of 7,000 people (and has been that size for decades) between NYC and Philadelphia. It is a town that my ancestors helped settle in the 1800s, but that I had only visited a handful of times in the last 40 years. It is a town that was not a racially diverse town when I was growing up.

Yesterday I spent visiting places I had lived, the church I went to and was married at (as had been my parents, grandparents, and great grandparents), schools I had attended, and the gravesite where my parents, grandparents, and generations before were buried. Things had changed, but most things seemed as they always had. Everything seemed small and a bit run down.

Milltown is, however, very big on its 4^th of July celebrations. I walked most of the milelong parade route and I could feel the building excitement. The street was lined with all manner of folding chairs reserving spots. People were setting up tents and preparing food in their yards. Everyone smiled and said “Happy 4^th of July!” I joked to one person setting up food that I would come back for something to eat and she responded, “Please do!” and it felt genuine. The friendliness felt like the town I remembered.

The Korean pastor was setting up chairs in front of the Methodist church I went to. There were a group of African-Americans with loud music playing from their front porch. Some people near where I sat to watch the parade included a Puerto Rican and a Dominican. I heard a few languages being spoken that I did not recognize. The welcome diversity did not feel like the town I remembered. Regardless, pretty much everyone was wearing red, white, and blue and thoroughly enjoying themselves.

I ran into my childhood, next-door neighbors from Blueberry Drive (yes, that was the name of the street). Bonnie and Kathy invited me to sit with them for the parade. The parade lasted over an hour and a half. It included a myriad of fire trucks, ambulances, sports cars, and Harley-Davidsons all making lots of noise and throwing out candy. A kid near me was crying because of all of the noise. I gave him some of the candy I had caught and he was happier. (I also ate plenty of it myself!)

There was a wide variety of music in the parade including drums and bagpipes, mariachis, Latin/jazz fusion, a drumline, an old guy singing Blue Suede Shoes, and others I’ve forgotten. There were boy scouts, girl scouts, dancers, and plenty more. Amazingly, I did not find myself bored and frequently realized I was smiling for no particular reason.

The day has given me hope for America. Like my small hometown, much has changed over the last 50 years, though much remains the same. Our country has plenty of work to do, but it has matured and continues to do so. 

May God bless America!

TED 2022 - Days 4 & 5

The three sessions on Wednesday (Regeneration, Cities, and Imagination) and the one on Thursday morning (Awe) covered a lot of ground. Topics (and speakers) ranged from autonomous building robots on Mars (Melodie Yashar) to leather made from mushrooms (Dan Widmaier) to the urgency of and hope in the efforts against climate change (Al Gore) to a robot art installation in the Tate Modern museum (Anicka Yi, shown with one of them in the picture to the left) to the importance of philosophy (Michael Schur) to the need for more nuclear energy (Isabelle Boemeke, a model turned social influencer) to the flaws in our current historical understanding of the development of civilization (David Wengrow, whose book on the topic, The Dawn of Everything, I need to finish reading). Many of the talks were interesting and a few were really thought-provoking. Rather than try to describe them all or in any particular order, I'm just going to write about a few of the talks that stuck with me. 

Two talks that hit me were by people making a difference starting with what and who they knew. Tiffani Ashley Bell was a computer programmer who learned about people in Detroit (where she did not live) who were unable to pay their water bills and had the water turned off. She decided to do something about it. She figured out how to pay water bills for folks and get their water turned back on. Then, she told her friends about it and they did so as well. Over time, they paid off over $100K of bills and started a movement. Bell challenged folks to decide what problems bother us and figure out how we can help. Sara Lomelin told of her work with giving circles which are groups of people, who may not be friends initially, that gather to do philanthropic things together. Both of their approaches seemed very doable and mostly require people (like me) to just start doing something. 

Bryce Dallas Howard gave an interesting talk on living one's life in the public eye as many people are now doing on social media. She is the daughter of Ron Howard and lived her life in the public eye long before social media. She told of being given a movie script to give to her father when she was in preschool! Her mother worked hard to help her to develop tiers of relationships. That allowed her to have a private life while still being in the public eye. Howard is now an actress and dealing with similar issues for her children. She gave two rules for dealing with social media that seemed very practical. First, give a 2-day delay in posting and when you do post, do so with purpose. That advice probably won't allow anyone to be a social media influencer, but few of us will be or even want to be. 

One of the final talks on Thursday was obviously meant to be a headliner to keep people at the conference for the last day. Musk did not give a talk, but rather was interviewed by Chris Anderson. Elon Musk is always quotable and his current attempt to purchase Twitter made the conversation even more high profile. It was almost an hour long and covered too much ground to attempt to describe here. Fortunately, it is already available to watch. 

Though Musk had lots of interesting things to say, I was struck most by his discussion of dealing with having Aspergers. I could not help but think of one of my grandsons and both the challenges he faces as well as the things he may be able to achieve. They key is to get him involved in things he loves (for Musk it was physics and reading) and help him along his way. 

The most moving talk of the sessions was Wednesday evening's finale by the artist JR. He has spoken at multiple TEDs in the past and his art has always been interesting. He said regarding his art, "I don't tell people what to think, I just ask them to think." What he does is take photos, usually of people, and print them very large so that they can be applied to buildings and walls. What he spoke about was an installation he did in a supermax prison in California. These were the hardest of criminals that needed to be kept in such as secure facility. He took photos from above of each of the inmates. Then, he printed them very large and the inmates help glue them to the ground such that they filled the exercise yard. From above it looked like they were all looking up from inside the prison walls. 

The art was cool, but what was moving was the influence it had on the inmates. He had interviewed each of them about why they were in prison and how it had changed them. The stories were available on the Internet and some of their families saw them and communicated with them for the first time in years. It changed many of them. Some of the stories he told were very touching. His talk will be well worth watching when it comes out. 

Of course, no TED is complete without a party or two for me to feel awkward and out of place. Despite Mark's and my efforts last evening to hide in the corner and eat dinner, we ended up talking with a woman who works for a non-profit trying to augment NASA's (insufficient, by her telling) efforts to identify asteroids that might collide with the Earth. I asked a stupid question about the recent movie Don't Look Up, which she correctly point out was about a comet crashing into the Earth and totally different. Regardless, it was the start to an interesting conversation and yet another reminder that I really ought to make the effort to talk to people. 

So, did I end up with any takeaways from the week at TED? I think so. First, I'm going to try and figure out one or two areas where there are needs that I can personally help. Then, I'm going to try and drag some of you along with me to make an impact. And, I'm going to be more intentional about having fun. It sure can't hurt!