The work that begins at retirement

Many readers who are past middle age will disagree with R. Paul Stevens’s opening assertion that “we should work until we die.” That is, until they read on. Stevens’s foundational premise is that God calls us into meaningful work at every stage of our life. “We do not retire from our calling even if we have retired from a career” because “while one chooses a career, one is chosen for a calling.” In this way, Stevens reframes the concept of retirement from a Christian perspective.

The work that Stevens thinks we should continue until we die is not the same work we did prior to retirement. Surprisingly, it has the potential to be even better. “Retirement can open up possibilities of work, voluntary or remunerated, that better fits one’s gifts, talents, personality, and life experience.” Defining work broadly as “energy expended purposively,” he draws a picture of retirement that includes purposefully and meaningfully contributing to the lives of others. As we age, we are called to live more than a life of rest and leisure.

At the age of 78, and eight years retired as a professor from Regent College, Stevens acknowledges he is writing in part for himself. He includes a variety of personal examples and regularly cites scripture as a way of integrating his faith with his search for the meaning of work after retirement. But he also writes for the large population of aging Christians who fill pews and pulpits—including those who, like me, are semiretired and zeroing in on their calling for the remainder of life.