2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Whets my appetite for more detailed reflections on how we can use our time in retirement to please God, March 9, 2011
This review is from: Rethinking Retirement: Finishing Life for the Glory of Christ (Paperback)
As the title suggests, _Rethinking Retirement_ by veteran pastor-theologian John Piper challenges traditional views of retirement. At the outset of this small booklet of roughly 30 pages, Piper lays his cards on the table: "Finishing life to the glory of Christ means resolutely resisting the typical American dream of retirement." (p. 6)
It will likely come as no surprise that Piper specifically targets baby boomers in this booklet since many of them are near or in retirement right now. Identifying as a baby boomer himself, Piper points out that research shows the baby boomer generation to be generally a selfish generation (p. 23). This may mean that counter-cultural efforts are required if Christian baby boomers are to finish the Christian life well in America. Says Piper, "Millions of Christian men and women are finishing their formal careers in their fifties and sixties, and for most of them there will be a good twenty years before their physical and mental powers fail. What will it mean to live those final years for the glory of Christ?" (pp. 24-25)
The question, then, has to do with a "theology of time." How do Christians use their time at the end of life in ways that please God? If they've worked a long, hard, productive life, will God be happy if they rest, play, and travel in their last years?
Piper's answer is that God is pleased when we use our time in retirement - indeed, at any point in life - to make him look glorious (p. 9). To operationalize that a bit, God is pleased when we do things in retirement that show that we are more in love with him than we are with the typical, American retirement lifestyle. When we serve others more than ourselves.
Wearing his pastor hat, Piper spends some time in this booklet dealing with a fear that presumably afflicts many Christians (count me in), namely, the fear of not finishing life well (p. 10). He notes that there are two responses to this fear, each being spiritually damaging. One response is to say that finishing life well doesn't matter. The other response is to say that it does matter and then to rely on one's own efforts and strength to persevere well onto the end (p. 11). Piper forges a middle-road response to this fear, affirming the necessity of perseverance for salvation, but denying any reliance on our own strength to achieve it. He says, "So what is the right way to overcome the fear of not persevering in old age? The key is to keep finding in Christ our highest Treasure. This is not mainly the fight to do but the fight to delight." (p. 17)
Along the way, Piper offers some inspiring stories of Christians who finished their lives well including Raymond Lull, Polycarp, Charles Simeon, and J. Oswald Sanders. It was the latter who said, "O God, don't let me waste my final years! Don't let me buy the American dream of retirement - month after month of leisure and play and hobbies and putzing around in the garage and rearranging the furniture and golfing and fishing and sitting and watching television. Lord, please have mercy on me. Spare me this curse." (pp. 27-28)
I myself am just entering my 30s, but I have been thinking a lot about retirement. This is in part because of the prognosticators who are saying that my generation will not be able to retire due to the ageing population and the lowering worker-to-retiree ratio, which will require that productive citizens work longer to pay for the government entitlements (e.g., social security, healthcare) promised to retirees.
But the more important question is whether the retirement lifestyle is pleasing to God. Piper's small booklet offers a hard-hitting and convicting answer to this question. It whets my appetite for more detailed reflections on this subject.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Booklet - not book, December 8, 2011
This review is from: Rethinking Retirement: Finishing Life for the Glory of Christ (Paperback)
Point: Don't waste your final years by living for meaningless pursuits which quickly fade. Live to love Christ.
Path: Piper encourages believers to persevere to the end through evading two deadly traps. One trap is believing that perseverance in unnecessary. The other trap is that perseverance puts or keeps God on our side. Both are false views.
Sources: By using examples from the ages and Scripture passages, Piper shows the danger and foolishness of living the "American Dream."
Agreement: Why do we expect and feel as though we deserve retirement? Have any of the great individuals of history ever retired?
Personal App: Am I merely seeking to save my life in my everyday pursuits and goals?
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14 of 25 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Rethink purchasing this small booklet for $5.99, June 1, 2009
This review is from: Rethinking Retirement: Finishing Life for the Glory of Christ (Paperback)
I've purchased three John Piper books over the past year and for the most part enjoyed them very much. He's always biblically sound and doesn't use the health & wealth or feel-good ploys that many so-called Christian authors use (or actually abuse) today.
Sadly I felt almost victimized with this purchase when I found it buried among some other papers at the bottom of the Amazon shipping box. This tiny 27 page pocket-size booklet cost me $5.99 and it took all of 15 minutes to read. Our church sells similar size books for $1.00 each. If the topic interests you, your money will be much better spent purchasing Piper's "Don't Waste Your Life". He critiques the idea of "retirement" and makes a strong argument that there is really no biblical basis for a life of leisure the last 10 to 40 years of your life when it could be used to glorify God in countless ways. "Don't Waste Your Life" costs a few dollar more and is a full size 200 page book.
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