The other night I was talking to my friend Daniel. He and his wife run The Restoration House, a ministry that provides temporary housing and support for single mothers. I asked him how, exactly, they came to start this ministry.
Basically (not in his exact words), they were in a small group meeting, and a person in the small group asked everyone, "if you could do anything in life...with no concerns about money, time, difficulty, etc...what would you do?" Daniel's wife, Mandy, answered, "I would buy a big piece of property and provide housing for single mothers."
Within a few weeks, guess what happened? A big piece of property, with more than one living space, very near to where they currently were living, went up for sale. They bought it. They did a bunch of renovations and put together a ministry plan. And now Mandy's dream is being fleshed out in reality.
That's totally amazing. And as I think about it, I'm trying to answer that question for myself. If I could do anything in life, with no worries regarding money, time, difficulty, etc...what would I do? My answer? I'm not really sure. I have ideas. But no true sense of "calling" in a specific area. It's something I'm praying about. And once that answer becomes clear, I hope I'll have what it takes to pursue it. Give it some thought. What would you do?
if you could do anything ...
christian concept of retirement?
There's a concept I've mentally struggled with for a long time. We talked about it in my small group last week. It's the concept of "retirement" and "investment savings" as a Christian.
Here's my struggle. In the New Testament church, no one really owned anything. All possessions and material needs belonged to everyone and people used stuff as it was needed most. The Bible speaks often about trusting God for provision, not worrying about tomorrow, and giving what you have to those who need it more than you.
Yet we live in a current world - Christians included - in which we earn and save mostly for ourselves...we're taught to put away nest eggs for college savings, retirement, and those "just in case" moments (worrying about tomorrow?) when we'll need the money.
I realize that this practice is really a result of a community shift. If ALL Christians were committed to New Testament possession principles, we could live the way they did. Even if one church body were committed to it, that church could probably live the NT way. But people don't do this. We think it's an awesome concept, but we don't really trust others, ourselves, and maybe even God enough to really believe that it could work and we could still live comfortable lives.
So, do I look at retirement savings (IRA, 401K, mutual funds, savings, etc) as provisions from God - maybe that's God's way of providing for us. Or do I look it as a lack of trust for provision, do I consider it hoarding, and a way to plan on being totally lazy for the last 10-15 years of my life?
Should Christ followers ever truly retire? Or do we simply retire from a worldly job in order to focus our full-time efforts on ministry work? And if we do that, wouldn't that retirement nest egg be wonderfully spent on missions, providing for the poor, helping people get back on their feet, helping new church plants.....yes, it's important to have enough to eat and have a roof over your head and a car to drive, but isn't that really a secondary concern to doing the work of Christ?
Help me out, here. I'm totally on the fence. Sometimes I'll lean hard one way, then hard the other way. I want to be more committed to saving and investing and making sure my son has all he needs down the road....but I also want to commit to live more frugally, to trust more in God's provision, to teach my son that we don't need all the best possessions to be happy and at peace. What are your thoughts? How do you see the Bible teaching us in this area?