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I recently joined a Zoom session with some old friends from a lifetime ago—over forty years, to be exact. As we reminisced, I was transported back to the days when our world revolved around selling and servicing factory automation equipment. While some of us have since retired, others are still working and have no intention of stopping anytime soon. Our conversation briefly turned to the pros and cons of post-career life. I tried to articulate the profound insights my retirement years have offered me but struggled to convey them effectively. That experience inspired me to write this message about what a diverse career has taught me—and what I wish I had known sooner. These reflections are deeply personal and shaped by my own journey. Your mileage may vary.

After the call, I found myself reflecting not just on my time as part of a tight-knit group of trainees on assignment in the early 1980s, but on my entire career journey. It all began with entry-level jobs at a bar and grill, a supermarket, and a drugstore. After two decades in factory automation, I transitioned to healthcare technologies, where I held a variety of roles—ranging from individual contributor to team lead and eventually executive leadership.

With the clarity afforded by the idle hours of retirement, I now look back on my working years as providing an excuse of sorts to not think deep thoughts. I’m talking about thoughts like why am I here, what is the purpose of life, and how am I supposed to behave. At least for the last question, “successful” society members provided several guidelines and rules. Get good grades, be articulate in your speech, and respectful in your manners. Finally, land a good job marked with frequent raises and promotions and always have your life charts moving “up and to the right.”  

Back in my day (I love being old enough to say that), interactions with other working men seemed limited to asking if you were hitting your numbers. There was an unspoken but none-the-less apparent competitive air between us. One’s self-worth appeared to be based on how many people you commanded and how many dollars you were responsible for delivering. Years of superficial interaction left me feeling vulnerable, insecure, and inadequate. No matter how good my performance was last year, the next year’s expectations were even higher. No matter how good my old reviews were, I always felt today was a “do or die” situation.

While I toiled with my head down, I did not even think to take the time to ask big questions; am I really making a difference? Is there an ultimate purpose for all this kinetic undulation? Only during brief disruptions to the daily grind, such as those caused by the untimely death of a colleague, I’d be confronted, and only momentarily, with deeper questions of life. Where is all this leading? Is there an all-powerful God? Does he favor one form of religion over all the others? But before I could invest the time required to find these answers, the pressures of the marching clock would pull me back into the grind. Deep questions would have to wait.  

Well, wait no more! The mental stillness afforded by no longer holding a job has finally provided me the time to contemplate life’s big questions. I see clearly my new role as bearer of the “been there, done that” badge within my community. But what is my community? I left my work-a-day troglodyte community (no offense guys). Thankfully, one community in which I had been peripherally involved was my local church. This group included older retired men (the kind with juno and AOL emails) who had already finished their work lives only to become living examples of how to live after a career. They volunteered at home building events, food prep kitchens, traveled to provide aid in disaster zones, and lent their individual contributor and leadership experience to charitable organizations. Their time, talent, and treasures were now used to answer the call of their fellow man who often still needed the basics in life. They offered comradery not based on my numbers and what I could do for them, but on my journey of discovery of my spiritual purpose and what I could do for “the kingdom”.

Initially I too swung a hammer, washed dishes, and cooked for kids on mission trips. Soon after however I looked for other ways to more frequently fulfill the commandment to “go and make disciples of the world”. I have since found fulfillment in aligning my gifts to this mission in the form of teaching Sunday School, helping elders in my community and resolve their technological troubles, and in sharing my new found passion for Biblical scholarship through the leading of a weekly Bible study group. Engaging in these efforts has produced numerous study aids for books of the Bible (including a companion guide for reading the complete Bible in a year.) I’ve answered the intimidating call to preach God’s word several times a year. Through all of this, I see now that my years of teaching tech classes and giving sales presentations were actually honing a comfort level in front of an audience which I now use for the true intended purpose of these gifts – to bring glory to God. 

How blessed are those who, early in their careers, discover the profound connection between their everyday work and God’s calling. They recognize the link between their daily efforts and the blessings those efforts bring to others. These individuals understand that their time, talent, and resources are tools for serving the world, enriching others through the fruits of their labor. Neighbors find their burdens lightened. The challenges of a broken world are alleviated. Barriers to noble pursuits are dismantled as each person’s unique gifts are used to fulfill their God-given purpose.

While I don’t see a day when our collective attention will be focused less on our many forms of escapism (sports, celebrity, entertainment, and actual drugs), I do hope for a day when my children, grandchildren, and children of the world will be encouraged to see a direct connection between their daily labors and the betterment of world around them. This can have the impact of changing one’s attitude toward work from one of indentured drudgery to one of rewarding and fulfilling service.   

For my own peace of mind, if I squint hard enough and am charitable in my recollections, I can see where selling automation equipment helped reduce the cost of goods through reduction of waste, improved productivity, and increased the availability of goods to more consumers. I can also see family worries and financial struggles eased by the utilization of the remote health monitoring technology I once labored to design and sell. 

How I wish I’d realized this while I was working. For those of you still working, I encourage you to challenge yourself by repeating a phrase before starting each new task; The phrase is “so that…” You can say to yourself, “I am trying to make this sale…and then add “so that…” Your initial answer might be, “so that I can make my budget”. However, make sure another “so that” is lurking right behind the last one and respond again to the prompt to dig deeper and answer “so that I make my bonus.” And again another “so that” would append to that last answer, to which you’ll be forced to elaborate “so that I make my bonus, secure my position, allow me to pay my bills, feed my kids, keep my house, etc…” However, a relentless “so that” should follow each answer and ultimately drive your to discover and concede the real reason you do anything, “so that I could ….what?” This was the question I wished I’d endeavored to answer far earlier in my life. 

Through experience, I have learned countless wrong answers—wrong because they fail to bring lasting fulfillment or align with the purpose intended by our Creator. Pursuing work “so I can buy more stuff” will never satisfy. Striving “to impress, control, or intimidate others” is a goal that can never truly be achieved. And chasing recognition “to write my name in the history books of winners” will ultimately leave you unfulfilled. 

If these are the wrong answers, what are the right ones? Coming to the right answer required me to afford/take the time to answer some big questions. For the convenience of you the reader, I present the following big questions in a brief Q&A form. I don’t pretend these are comprehensive, but may spark additional pursuit, something I wish someone had laid out for me when I was neck deep in the daily grind.  

• Where did all this world (the universe) come from? I find credible science’s “big bang” theory in which all the energy, substance, and matter in the universe (from the Latin unum in diversis a word forming the contraction of “unity-diversity”) exploded from a singularity into what is now the ever-expanding cosmos. This video entitled “The history of the world in two hours” portrays it very well (and is a good companion to this article on Creation). However, the film starts with the Big Bang, skipping over any discussion of the initial cause for this singularity to change into something else. The agent which caused this explosion had to be outside of that singularity/universe, and since this agent by definition can have no initial cause, it must be an eternal uncaused cause. I side with those who conclude this creator was God.  

• What can I learn about this creator? From mere observations of the natural world, I can learn much about the values and characteristics of the Creator (something called natural or general revelation). Seeing the interdependent, complex systems, the sophisticated cycles of change, the intricacy of design reveals much. However, to know even more detail, I need direct (special) revelation from the creator, from God.  

• Who can tell me about the Creator? Ask anyone, either living or dead (through their literature) and they will tell you what they think. You’ll hear as many different ideas as there are people. However, and since it was done long ago, to learn what God directly communicated to His created beings, you’ll need sacred writings. In those you can learn of His character, His design intent, wishes, plans, and expectations all of which you’ll find have been shared over the years through divine encounters. Stories of these messages have been passed down through the ages. The challenge we have is separating true encounters from corrupt claims of encounter. This requires testing messages for alignment with the natural world, drawing from firsthand witnesses, and looking for harmony with previously revealed truths. The collection of writings in the Bible have passed the test of integrity and veracity by all but the most cynical readers. No other written work comes close in terms of source integrity, historical preservation, and ongoing popularity.   

• Why am I here? Now with a time-tested source for answers, you can turn to the pages of these writings and find all the answers to the questions worth asking. “Give me the bottom line” readers will discover the Creator commands (rather than suggests) that we love God with all our hearts, mind, and strength, and love our neighbors as ourselves. We can ignore and reject this directive only at the expense of ourselves and our world. Adhering to this directive requires super-human effort, but the Creator has a solution for that too…give up…and let Him do it through his Holy Spirit. Give up your corrupt, human desires including the desire to use your abilities (which are actually gifts given to you by the Creator) to selfishly attempt to control your world and your own destiny. Accept the sovereignty of God the Creator over the illusion of self-rule and welcome the Holy Spirit of the Living God to guide and govern your thoughts, aspirations, decisions, motivations, and actions.   

• What gives? OK, so that is the plan, but not everyone seems to be aligned with this directive. The harsh realities of a world ignoring the Creator’s directive can initially leave one feeling his/her individual efforts are futile. Since so few seem to be following the directives, it can cause us to question if the directives are really the truth. However, a reading and study of the Bible finds others have lived in a time well before ours and experienced these very same successes and failures. Rather than repeat the failures of the past, we can learn vicariously from their attempts and shorten our own learning curve. We can focus on the hope we have for an assured future where the Creator’s original designs will be reestablished. We can have solid assurance that the harmony of existence in the presence of God will once again be restored.   

Armed with the wisdom of the past, an understanding of how the world is meant to work, and a renewed confidence in the future, we can face the challenges of today with resilience. If you’re retired, you now have the time to delve deeply into God’s Word and uncover its full richness. If you’re still working, it’s essential to carve out time to learn the basics. Perhaps one of us “been there, done that” folks could serve as a mentor to guide you on this journey?

Paul encouraged his planted church members in Corinth with these words, “When I was a child, I spoke and thought and reasoned as a child. But when I grew up, I put away childish things. Now we see things imperfectly, like puzzling reflections in a mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity. All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God now knows me completely. Three things will last forever—faith, hope, and love—and the greatest of these is love.” In retirement, I have found this to be a laudable truth which I now labor to share with the world.

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Writers Block