The move south is a few weeks away yet. My life, though, is gradually being transferred to storage bins and boxes. It is a familiar routine. On average, in recent times, I have moved once every four years.
Perhaps I’m something of a nomad. And perhaps that’s the way God wants it, but I’ve been resistant.
You see, I have a couple of dreams. One is definitely within God’s will. The other I’m more doubtful about.
The doubtful dream is one about eventually being settled. On retirement you find a pleasant home where you can put down roots in a healthful area that you already know reasonably well.
The facilities are good and there are friendly people who know you and will welcome you. Within easy reach are to be found a sound gospel church and community groups to join. You have a garden you can get established and enough space in the house to accommodate an array of exciting electronic gadgets. The neighbourhood is quiet; country lanes are not far away. The noise pollution of barking, yelping pet dogs is mercifully a thing of the past. A sufficient, guaranteed pension income allows you to explore new possibilities.
Sounds good at first. It fails to take account of a number of things.
First, I have yet to master this retirement business. When faced with enforced leisure I don’t function well.
Second, in God’s purposes there is no real retirement. The Promised Land was supposed to be journey’s end for the Israelites of old. Yet they were expected to leave their houses once a year and build shelters for themselves out in the open - it was called the Feast of Tabernacles - to remind them of the Exodus from Egypt. This festival is no longer binding on Christians, but they are told in Hebrews 13:14
For here we do not have an enduring city, but we are looking for the city that is to come (NIV).
This should be a warning. A long, settled earthly retirement is not wrong for the Christian, but it is not an automatic entitlement either.
The other dream is more likely to be within God’s will. It is about being pastor of a church where I can serve God productively among people who understand what that service means.
“Surely,” you say to yourself, “that would describe any church.” Yet it is astonishing how many put road blocks in front of a pastor that are totally uncalled for. In situations like that a pastor will feel that he is a guest at the table, not a member of the family. Meaningful service becomes impossible and survival or departure is the name of the game.
As the next stage of my life’s journey takes me to Wiltshire, I have high hopes that the experience will be positive both for the new pastor and for the church.
It will be a joy to find the elusive pastorate which works out. Yet that joy, like all earthly joys, is a guide and a pointer rather than an end in itself. For those who remain faithful unto death, through all the ups and downs, there is a heavenly home yet to be revealed.
Years ago, God spoke to me dramatically through Psalm 138:8 -
The Lord will fulfil his purpose for me.
The Holy Spirit brings this up to date for the Christian in another verse, Philippians 1:6 -
… he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.
Make that Day your goal, and both disappointments and joys fall into their God-given place.
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