The Apostle Paul had a fascination with sports. Church tradition suggests that he was anything but athletic, so perhaps he idealized what he was not built for. At different times in his writings he references wrestling, boxing, and, of course, running. Perhaps, this was also influenced by his two year imprisonment at Caesarea Maritima. This was a beautiful city on the Mediterranean Sea where Pontus Pilate lived at times. It was a cultural center but also a place where athletes trained for the Greek Olympic games. it is very likely that Paul spent much of his time watching them train and thinking of parallels between athletes and the spiritual life of believers.

In his second letter to the church in Corinth, Paul wrote, “Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last; but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. Therefore I do not run like a man running aimlessly; I do not fight like a man beating the air. No, I beat my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize” (1 For. 9:24-27).

Perhaps, Paul had Solomon in mind when he said that he would keep his body or his flesh in check so that he would not be disqualified for the prize. Solomon started out well. When God offered to give him anything he wanted, he didn’t ask for power or wealth but for wisdom to govern God’s people. God was so pleased with his request that he gave him all three because these were gifts that could only be stewarded well by a humble man. In the years ahead he was given power, glory, wealth and wisdom that government officials from around the world came to hear.

The problem was that after years of peace, honor, and getting everything he wanted, his zeal for the Lord wained. The numerous foreign wives he had taken seduced him into worshipping their god’s at the high places of Israel. In the end, Solomon died as a foolish idolator. Many other spiritual leaders in scripture also began well, but faded in their last years. Many of the great evangelists of the 19th and 20th Centuries had the same experience. They had amazing ministries but ended with mental health issues, sexual sin, and financial scandals.

I think there is a profound warning in these examples for all of us who are over 60. At least in America, we are programmed to think in terms of retirement once we get to age 60 0r 65. Others strive hard for early retirement around age 50 or 55. We define retirement as the years in which we get to take our foot off the accelerator, de-stress, and coast to the finish line. It’s a time when we think we should be able to do as we please without answering to a boss or a board. If we have done well financially, we feel satisfied and self-reliant.

Here is the caution. Many people, who have served the Lord well for years, take a retirement stance in the kingdom as well. They unplug from both the office and the church, and go to the lake or go to live close to the grandkids and that orders their lives.. There is certainly nothing wrong with going to the lake or investing in the grandkids…as long as we don’t begin to coast spiritually and develop the mindset that we did our tour of duty in the kingdom and now it’s our time to relax and let others serve.

The apostle Paul would have raised his eyebrows at the thought of taking a twenty year sabbatical from serving in the church or sharing the gospel because it was time to relax. Retirement is an American concept, not a kingdom concept. Paul instructs us to run our race as believers, like one who is running in the Olympics. One of the firs things you learn in competitive track is to never slow down as you complete your final lap and close in on the finish line. You are coached to run as hard as you can, never slowing down, until you are well past the finish line. If you have watched much track and field, you have seen numerous examples of someone in the lead who slows down just a few steps before the finish line only to be passed by another runner or several runners. On several occasions, I have seen runners in the lead who thought the race was won and so slowed down only three strides before the end, only to be passed by several at the last second, so that he or she didn’t medal at all.

The truth is that when I unplug from church, from ministry, and from the weekly fellowship of other believers or when I feel I am spiritually mature enough that I no longer need to be challenged and motivate by sermons or lessons or testimonies, I will start to lose ground spiritually. Spirituality is like a muscle. If I fail to stretch it, tax it, and exercise it on a regular basis, that muscle will atrophy.

Paul’s perspective is that we should all want to finish strong, not coast to the end. God gives us time on this earth and that time is a gift must be stewarded. If we simply use our last twenty years to indulge ourselves because we feel we have earned the right to do so, we may have a hard time explaining how we used that twenty years faithfully to continue to bear fruit for the kingdom.

Believe me, I recognize that as we age we don’t always have the energy or stamina we once had. Paul put it this way. “Although outwardly we are waisting away, inwardly we are being renewed day by day” (2 Cor. 4:16). Paul recognized that the years take a toll physically, but our spiritual life such continue to grow, be enriched, and bear fruit more than ever as we approach the finish line.

There is something spiritually dangerous about our latter years and our latter years are being extended as the average American can expect to live much longer than previous generations. The scriptures and history testify that many (not all) men and women who were amazing in the kingdom of God finished their race poorly. Because of that, we should be thoughtful about those “final-lap” years and intentionally position ourselves to stay connected to a healthy church and to ministries in which we continue to bear fruit.

God has ordained that believers live in connection with one another. We are commanded to love one another, encourage one another, serve one another, pray for one another, admonish one another, etc. If we are not in active relationships with one another in the church, we cannot fulfill those commands. We have a responsibility to the body of Christ to stay actively involved. The writer of Hebrews warns , “Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching” (Heb.10:25). I don’t believe the electronic church fits God’s design for our lives and his church unless circumstances will not allow us to leave our homes.

Here is my concern. At a time when the church needs every faithful believer fully engaged, our most mature and potentially most productive people are simply phasing out. I know from personal experience, that if I am away from my spiritual family and my commitment to ministry for any extended period, my spiritual life suffers. I know that if I retire so that I disconnect from the church in meaningful ways, I will not finish strong and when the Lord returns and asks me what I did for Him with the last years of my life he entrusted to me., I may not have an adequate answer.

I simply want us all to finish strong and to think about those years when we will have more time, more resources, and more experience than the rest of the church. What will we do with those? Be prayerful, be thoughtful, and be intentional. As great as Solomon was, he died an idolator. He asked for wisdom to govern God’s people and he was the most politically astute ruler of his age or, perhaps, any age. He should have asked for spiritual wisdom – wisdom to live well for God – because in that he failed. So when we start to make retirement plans, let’s submit those to the Lord and just to our own desires, so that we steward well all that he has given us.