What is it you have always wanted to do in retirement?

Someone newly retired said to me, "Pastor, I'm going to have to watch it or my schedule is going to be so full that I'll be busier in retirement than I was when I was working." I felt like saying, "Oh, I wouldn't know," but I didn't.

But I do know that we are to be good stewards of our time just as we are called to be good stewards of property, money, our bodies and the earth.

Each episode of the soap opera, ''The Days of our Lives" opens (Is it still on TV?) with "As sands through the hour glass so are the days of our lives." It is said that everyone is given the same amount of time, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. If that is true then why are

Some people able to accomplish so much and others very little. It's probably true because those who accomplish a lot purposely determine they are not going to just let time slip through their fingers. They do not allow Time Robbers to control their live s, namely the TV and the computer.  They set goals to learn and do new things and then they pursue those goals. What are your goals for the next few months or years?

What would you really like to do?

Woodworking? Golf? Quilting? Painting? Piano?

Computer?

Photography? A second language? Exercise? Bible Study?

Tutoring? Travel?

Serve in the church?

I am thankful that so many members of Faith are willing to serve to fill various jobs so that our congregation operates so smoothly -from Elder to Trustee, office Help to choir member, Altar Guild to money counter, custodian and lawn mower, and on and on. Such persons give of themselves and thus they have "ownership" in the congregation.

One of the reasons that our congregation conveys such a warm, loving, family atmosphere is because members in the first 20 years of the life of congregation gave so generously of their time. They couldn't say, "I'm retired, I've done that.”  They couldn't say, "Let someone younger do it!" because they were it. Not only were the first generation of Faith members pioneers in the sense that they moved to the Village when it was primitive in its development, but they were pioneers in blazing the trail of church life that we now call Faith. One of the most important things they did was to organize themselves into Home Bible Study groups called Careciples.

Some of them volunteered to be leaders. Others hosted the studies in their homes on a rotating basis