Making Your Wonder as Strong as Your Reality
“Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?” said Alice.
“That depends a good deal on where you want to get to,” said the Cat.
“I don’t much care where —” said Alice.
“Then it doesn’t matter which way you go,” said the Cat.
Which road to retirement will you take?
The Story of Your Retirement
Many ministers scarcely know what to expect as they face retirement. They believed they were called to ministry, and as that occupation comes to an end their calling and belief in that calling does not. Many at this point begin to wrestle with who they are when not ministering. When the challenge of understanding their calling apart from professional ministry is bundled with free time, paralysis can set in and many end up struggling with despair or depression as they consider what they think is an uncertain future based upon an identity crisis.
Important Questions to consider:
What does it mean for a minister to retire effectively?
What about my calling after full-time ministry?
Who am I now that my full-time ministry no longer defines me?
What can I do to effectively navigate this important transition?
How will your self-worth be defined in this stage of life?
Retirement Road of Transition - A Turning Point of Integrity or Despair
As one reflects on the total sum of one’s whole life’s experiences, it’s interesting to discover how social interaction and relationships played a role in one’s development. The contention is that people experience a conflict, a crisis that serves as a turning point in their development.
Retirement is transition – a crisis - a turning point which significantly alters the minister’s role, relationships, routines, and assumptions. This transition has the potential to alter one’s future more positively or more negatively than any other life transition depending on how a person builds his/her life in this stage. It is important to understand retirement as not just a point in time when full-time work ceases.
When viewing retirement transition as a particular point in time, the process breaks down as soon as you need a further lifestyle change, and despair can settle in. It is a continuous process of planning and implementing lifestyle choices that promote your well-being.
Warning signs along the road
This stage of transition has been identified as Integrity vs. Despair, beginning at age 65 and ending at death. What are the warning signs along the road that can cause a crisis? Events such as retirement itself, loss of spouse, friends, acquaintances, facing a terminal illness, resolving external, internal and philosophical problems, regrets, scarcity and fear, certainty, productivity as self-worth, anxiety as a lifestyle, disconnection of significant relationships and other major changes of roles in life, these signs and others will cause a detour in the road for your life. In this stage people look and reflect back on life they have lived and come away with either a sense of fulfillment from a life well lived (integrity) or a sense of regret and despair over a life possibly misspent (despair).Those who are unsuccessful during this phrase will feel that their life has been misspent and experience many regrets and will be left with feelings of bitterness and despair. One doesn’t experience integrity or despair all the time. Instead, most healthy individuals experience a balance between each as they begin to make sense of their lives in this stage. The basic virtue needed is wisdom.
Eight keys to your effective retirement
Researchers have discovered eight important keys to an effective life in retirement. These keys when incorporated into a plan and executed enable one to thrive physically, mentally, vocationally, socially, and spiritually.
These eight keys include:
having a healthy approach to mental and physical aging
creating a personal vision of your authentic design of worth to the kind of life that is uniquely you
nurturing family, relationships and rekindling intimacy with God
determining what values will guide you
fostering a balanced approach to leisure
understanding how you project onto the world you now live
Developing an attitude of gratitude
expanding and staying active in your social network.
These conclusions are significant! They parallel guidance, drawn from Hebrew culture, on stages of development to maturity. Proverbs makes it clear - we need wisdom in order to successfully meet each crisis. Proverbs 14:8 “The wisdom of the sensible is to understand his way, But the foolishness of fools is deceit” (NASB)
Which road to take, does it matter? Yes.
Which road you choose makes a difference of integrity or despair. Reflecting on the road behind you with a sense of fulfillment (integrity) or a sense of regret over the oughts and should haves (despair). It could be a road of transitioning to a repurposed life leading you to a destination toward greater maturity in relationship to self, others, and God.
Retirement Transition Support in a Fallen World
By God’s design and the necessity inherent with living in a fallen creation, people need relationships and environmental support to fulfill their needs of life in retirement. On this road of transition, it is not wise to travel alone, but with a guide, and support from others.
CORE 7 was created to assist those in transition to establishing an authentic identity of worth outside of full-time ministry involving the mental, physical, emotional, and spiritual aspects of the journey. CORE 7 is an association of ministers and spouses, promoting their wellbeing as they consider their transition to retirement by providing an environment of relationships, events, seminars, life coaching, and our national conference, “Dare to Define Your Destiny”. It is focused on personal enrichment and guidance while helping you navigate the road of transition so that you can flourish to the finish.
Discover more about CORE 7, membership and “Dare to Define Your Destiny” here at thecore7.net.
“Discover your new identity, be yourself, everyone else is already taken.”
“For he will not often consider the years of his life, because God keeps him occupied with the gladness of his heart”
