by Julie Champ

Prelude:

Question – if my current career path is and has been my “calling”, then what is retirement? Can retirement be also a calling to Sabbath – a whispering to sit yourself down and rest a spell?

I left my long-time career in public accounting in 2013 to accept what I’ve referred to as my “dream job” as Director of Finance for Westminster Presbyterian Church in Minneapolis. It’s a church with big role as a telling presence in the city.  Over the past eight years, it was all that I thought it could be and so much more. I was blessed and honored to find myself in the right place at the right time with a skillset that was “just right” (to borrow from Goldilocks).

Now I stand on the cusp of retirement, nudged by my doctor to reduce the level of stress in my life – a prescription that will allow me to have a healthier life for the next chapter. Sounds good to me, but I also would like to hear from God as well! What map does the Divine have in mind as I step off the path of career and onto the road less traveled? Is it a sacrificial act of leaving behind what I love? Can retirement be a calling, perhaps a life “Sabbath” and time to share the wisdom I have gained? Is it a rolling of the dice to take my talents and shake them up a bit?

My soul is yearning to put down my calculator and pick up other creative tools. . .To start however, I need to begin with the tools most familiar to me – numbers in spreadsheet format:

 Retirement by the numbers:

• 40 Years in my career, beginning my professional journey at age 25. Taking the road unexpected, I stepped off the path of words and music and entered the highway of numbers; in other words, a degree in Accounting with the added initials of CPA. Definitely a wilderness experience.

• 87 Percent "certain" I'll have sufficient funds in retirement, or so Tom, my Investment Advisor says as he interprets the report charts, graphs and icons. These visuals are the sum efforts of a life's work in saving money, the fuel for my retirement vehicle. I need the lens of a third party when looking at mortality through dollar and "sense". He thinks my money will take me to age 90; I've not yet gotten that commitment from my body.

• 12 Days left to work - or at least to wrap up my current projects.

• 21 Immediate and extended family members that have been nudging me in this direction for years, while I continued to find excuses to keep my feet planted firmly in my work.

• 70 The Biblical two score and ten that equal 70 as a good life. It also signifies for me the arrival of Social Security payments! My retirement is planned for June 30th - the day before my 67th birthday; my gift to myself for a lifetime of nose to the grindstone.

• 88 Keys on the piano in my living room waiting for me to find time for it once again. A steady partner, it’s been patiently waiting for my fingers to cry out for making music.

• 7 Months of expected sabbath rest and renewal; a time I’ll give myself to listen and discern my calling in this retirement chapter of my life. If God created the world in just seven days, then perhaps I should also rely on this number to find new ways to be going forward on the next leg of the journey.

• 1 Ego that keeps getting in the way.

Postlude:
What I know at this point on the cusp –

1.    God is definitely calling – I am the one that needs to make sure my spiritual “WIFI” is on and running at full throttle.

2.    This Journey in Retirement will be one that takes my whole self in new directions – the paths that will open me in new dimensions await. This time will not be a “leaving behind” but a journey toward the next chapter.

3.    God will continue to lead and nurture in my future days as has been the case with each and every day.

Epilogue:

Ah. . .