Printed from: https://archive.cmf.org.uk/doctors/devotion/?day=23&id=devotion&month=12
... they shall sit every man under his vine and under his fig tree. Mi 4:4
Doctors and others contemplating retirement tend to think of it in terms of these words of the prophet Micah -- admittedly taken somewhat out of context. I certainly did. When I retired from regular work some years ago, I was looking forward to a leisurely life of catching up on things I would love to do but had not found time for. I had heard about 'growing old gracefully', and it sounded good. Micah had the right idea: every man sitting under his own vine and under his own fig tree.
Maybe for me it would be a gum tree instead of a fig tree (in Australia the ratio of gum trees to fig trees is many millions to one). But that was a detail. It would just be good to put my feet up and relax.
It did not happen that way at all. A successful outcome from an operation made it clear that another chapter was ready to be written in the book of life. Rashly I said to the Lord: `What do you want me to do now? I am ready'. He took me at my word, and I have hardly stopped since.
In particular, my involvement in ICCP (now ICMDA) has brought much doing and travelling; so much so that a good friend of mine has referred in a letter to my `going up and down upon the earth, like a distinguished predecessor'. I was not too keen about the `distinguished predecessor' bit (see Jb 1:7. 2:2). But the `going up and down' bit was fair enough.
The fact is that going up and down on the earth is rather more demanding than putting up my feet under my own gum tree. I have had many attacks of the Jonah syndrome, which is another way of saying that I've done my level best to wriggle out of going somewhere that I did not want to go to although I knew I should. I have hoped that circumstances would stop me from going. But again and again my hopes were dashed. God refused to give me an excuse for not going. And he knew best. Always I have been glad in the long run that I went and grateful for having been sent.
We humans can be very stupid at times -- or at least I can be. It takes hard experience to get it into our heads that we cannot know the joy in living that God wants us to have unless we venture to grasp the opportunities he offers us. And that goes for retirement as much as for any other part of life -- provided of course that we reach retirement. Some don't (Lk 12:20).
Lord, teach me to number my days that I may at all stages of life apply my heart to wisdom.
Further reading: Mi 4:1-5. Lk 12:13-21.
RRW
