Another extreme approach, in addition to those we saw yesterday, is to see work as something to avoid at all costs.  It’s not a new sentiment – many have seen work as a necessary evil in history.  The Greek Philosopher Aristotle saw the ability to live without having to work as a primary qualification for a worthwhile life.

Some try to work themselves as hard as possible to get to retirement, financial independence, partner, or some other goal as quickly as possible.  Unfortunately, life is seldom forgiving of such imbalance.  I once met a recently retired school bus driver.  He’d worked hard at a number of difficult jobs in his life, and had just retired to live the good life.  Unfortunately he discovered at the same time that his health was failing, and he was going blind and deaf in the process.

He’d worked himself so hard, thinking the promised land was coming, ignoring his children and grandchildren by his own admission.  All that time, he didn’t notice he was supposed to live life and rest along the way, not just at the end.  No one ever promised or owed him a certain kind of retirement – yet he’d gambled his health and youth on just such a fantasy.

Work isn’t fulfilling, without work in balance.  Rest isn’t fulfilling, except in balance with work.

That isn’t to say there won’t be seasons of busy, hard work when rest is hard to find.  Starting a busyiness, residency, apprenticeship, times you need extra cash, all need hard work.  But we need to balance those times with seasons of rest, as well.  Don’t expect it will always come later.

For example, at one time a goal for early, luxurious retirement was a million in assets – but inflation means that a million isn’t worth what it used to be.  Look at Toronto real estate.  If that had been your goal, it quickly inflated out of reach.

Another example is retirement age – many people thought they just had to make it to age 65.  Now suddenly the normal retirement age is two years later, at age 67.  By the time I retire, who knows where it will be!  If that age was my goal, it only took an act of parliament to snatch it away.  Such numerical goals keep changing, and can’t be our true purpose in life.

Question: When will you know it’s time to retire?  How much will you need to save, what will you need to accomplish?  Will you ever retire?  

Acknowledgements: Tim Keller, Every Good Endeavour and Work & Rest

Ryan Sim - August 24, 2015

Monday - A New Idea - Finding Rest

Work and Rest

It can be very hard to find rest in our world. Between a Blackberry, kids, the home phone and social media, it can be hard to focus on anything, much less rest. One study found that people who are interrupted by technology score 20 percent lower on a standard cognition test. A second demonstrated that some students, even when on their best behavior, can't concentrate on homework for more than two minutes without distracting themselves by using social media or writing an email. We always wonder what we’re missing, what we should be doing, even when we’re supposed to be resting. With technology, we don’t have to suppress that – we can always know, we can always be available. People say it’s harder and harder to unplug. Even as I wrote this, I found myself turning to all kinds of distractions – it’s always when I try to focus on writing that I decide some amazing new change needs to be made to the app or social media. This makes it hard to work and rest – I’m constantly blending the two, and doing neither well as a result. For this year’s vacation, I committed to turning my smartphone off, and only checking in once a day to make sure things are running smoothly with Redeem the Commute. I’ll have to physically make sure my phone isn’t around, because I know I’ll be tempted otherwise. But that isn’t a foolproof formula – I can always go get my smartphone if I get too curious. Find rest can’t just be about strategies – because our problem is inside us. There is something inside me that is still wanting to check email, check the news, etc. We’ll explore what that is, and what to replace it with this week. Question: How do you “unplug” and rest? What strategies do you use?

From Series: "Work and Rest"

Just in time for summer's blend of work and rest, Redeem the Commute is starting a new series of daily challenges to help busy people restore life to the commuting lifestyle. This seven week series will look at the meaning and purpose of work, rest, and ancient practices that have helped followers of Jesus to keep the two in perspective and balance for centuries.

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