Wednesday, November 12, 2008

How To Not Waste Retirement

Justin Taylor recently linked to an interview with Brit Hume, regarding his upcoming semi-retirement from the FOX News Channel. Here are some of Hume's comments:

I thought about the three G’s: God, granddaughters, golf....And since my son died, I have been, really, I felt rescued by God and by Christ. I have an intense desire to pursue that more ardently and have it be a bigger part of my life than it has been....

It’ll translate into Bible study. It’ll translate, I think, in the fullness of time, into work that I might be able to do, like to find the right cause, and so on. It’s a big world out there. A lot can be done.


How many people, let alone major media figures, would name God as their first priority in retirement, mention Christ by name, say that a desire to pursue their relationship with God is a reason for their retirement, describe that desire as "intense", and refer to how they want to find "the right cause" in their retirement? I don't know much about Hume's faith. But what he says in this interview is a more mature perspective than I've heard from the vast majority of people planning for retirement.

Consider a story from the February 1998 edition of Reader's Digest, which tells about a couple who "took early retirement from their jobs in the Northeast five years ago when he was 59 and she was 51. Now they live in Punta Gorda, Florida, where they cruise on their 30 foot trawler, play softball and collect shells." At first, when I read it I thought it might be a joke. A spoof on the American Dream. But it wasn't. Tragically, this was the dream: Come to the end of your life - your one and only precious, God-given life - and let the last great work of your life, before you give an account to your Creator, be this: playing softball and collecting shells. Picture them before Christ at the great day of judgment: "Look, Lord. See my shells." That is a tragedy. And people today are spending billions of dollars to persuade you to embrace that tragic dream. (John Piper, Don't Waste Your Life [Wheaton, Illinois: Crossway Books, 2003], pp. 45-46)

2 comments:

  1. In case anyone doesn't know Hume's son committed suicide several years ago. I recall reading that Hume regretted not spending more time with him due to his career.

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  2. The prospect of a Fox News without Brit Hume gives me the fantods.

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