Rethinking Retirement & A Happy Old Age

You may now notice a slightly different theme change in some of the things I read, as my role at church has also changed. As I did with Youth, I have also made a Seniors page to help give a quick overview of some resources in that field. Below are two really short books about growing old. Between the two of them, there is probably less than 90 pages.

Rethinking Retirement: Finishing Life for the Glory of Christ by John Piper

This was a really short book, I wonder if it was once a sermon that then got turned into an essay. The main thrust of this book is hammering the doctrine of the perseverance of the saints. The premise is that in your old age you worry if you will still hold to the faith till the end. 

First, the little book deals with two false ways of approaching this, one is not being too concerned about making it to the end and leaning on some sort of cheap grace or once saved always saved position and the other is thinking that what you are doing in the faith is what is keeping you in the faith, or is keeping God pleased with you. Both these mindsets are wrong.

Secondly, this book then looks at the right way to follow God till the end. The solution is very Piper, we need to be satisfied in God:

perseverance is necessary for final salvation, and perseverance is certain for all those who are in Christ. The works we do on the path of love do not win God’s favor. They result from God’s favor. Christ won God’s favor. And we receive him by faith alone. And love is the overflow and demonstration of this faith.

This is the key to finishing life to the glory of Christ. If we are going to make Christ look glorious in the last years of our lives, we must be satisfied in him. He must be our Treasure.

This essay then has a few encouraging stories from the past about older people striving to the end. This is a book by Piper, which means you can download it for free. If you have maybe 15-20 minutes spare and are thinking about what you are going to do with your life in the future, have a quick read of it here.

A Happy Old Age by Ashton Oxenden

I had no idea the context of this book, it was just a cheap book on ageing that I added to the shopping cart. While the cover looked new, this book was written in 1861. I hadn't heard of Ashton Oxenden before but it seems he is famous because he was a contemporary of J. C. Ryle and was a like-minded Bishop in evangelical conviction.

Like Ryle's style of writing, this book was frank in addressing the matters of life and death. Ashton assumed that the reader is in their last stage of life, has pains and has a fading memory, but still despite all of that Oxeden doesn't shrink back from calling people to live a holy and cheerful life. That they are still not to neglect their reading of God's word, their listing to sermons and praying. That they are to be patient and gentle to those around them, to have a heavenly minded conversation with those around them, even when they have pain, even when they are being cared for.

Now the character traits that Oxeden asks for at the start of the book is pretty standard Christian stuff, a Christian teen book would probably say the same, but the back half of the book looks specifically about dealing with sermons when your mind is not clear and when it is fuzzy when you try and think back to last Sunday's message. It is honest with the reality of pain in an ageing body, loss of friends and memory and being considered a burden on others. However, even greater is Oxeden's honesty that when you die you will meet your maker. We need more than hope and goodwill to get us through death, we need certainty about who our God is and how we can receive mercy from Him.

This book was about 60 pages and a pretty quick read. While this is an old book, it is still really relevant today. It says some pretty hard truths, which may be emblematic of its day, but I did appreciate its clarity and also the recognition of the real challenges we will all face when we get older. As this book is out of copyright, you can read it online, however, I couldn't quickly find a better link than this one.