Editorial September 1, 1980 Issue

Retirement and "the new man"

BEULAH M. ROEGGE

Spiritual man never faces retirement. He never tires of, or retires from, what he's really about—expressing God in His fullness, representing Him, being His image. Retirement from human employment doesn't obscure these facts. Rather, such retirement may enable one to be more aware of his real work, more consciously about his "Father's business."

When retirement is accompanied by prayer, both employee and employer are blessed. This may be expressed in a gradual reduction of working hours, with the retiree not only continuing to share his labor and experience but also sharing spiritual fruitage from other hours spent in that study and prayer which forward a rebirth. Whether gradual, or at a fixed time, retirement doesn't have to be the work force getting rid of an older worker. It can be everyone finding in some degree a "new man."

Retirement years offer special opportunity for spiritual discovery. Such discovery may include not only finding wonderful qualities we've never known were ours, but also recognizing that some of the unlovely traits accepted as ours over the years don't really belong to us at all. Most important, a wider and deeper understanding of Spirit enables us to separate ourselves and others from the context of mortality and mortal personality to find spiritual reality and the Christliness of true selfhood.

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