Retirement

One of the biggest problems about retiring, especially if you're burnt out, is trying to keep up with your duties and responsibilities. It becomes difficult because when you start counting down the weeks, when you're looking forward to retirement, when the congregation is looking forward to getting a new pastor, it gets harder to have the energy to do the things you've been doing over the past years.

Part of it can be explained in a good way – because you don't want to start anything new, you don't want to cause any problems for a new pastor, you want to clean up all the messes that you can. But, on the other hand, it can be explained in bad ways as well: you're just too tired after all the battles of the past to start a new one; it gets to the point you don't care if the situation gets resolved (because all your efforts in the past have not resolved it). Sometimes, you can't even tell whether you have good or bad reasons for doing, or not doing, things you do.

It's at times like those that Christians must hang very firmly on to the hope of forgiveness that we have in Christ. It's true for so many things in our lives that we may not know whether they are good or bad, whether we have good or bad intentions. It is really doesn't matter in the end, because all our righteousness is like filthy rags – what is important is the cross of Christ and the forgiveness that he gives to us.