Funkyjimmer's Blog

Saturday, August 09, 2008

14 WORK DAYS AND COUNTING

posted by jim 8:39 AM 0 comments

posted by jim 8:38 AM 0 comments

As the calendar above shows, I’m counting down the days until retirement. I already volunteered a couple of half days at the Welcome Desk at my church. That was wonderful! I am looking forward to doing it on a regular basis and more often.

I talked with the funeral home directors informally yesterday. I am so excited about the opportunities that await me there. There will not only be opportunities to assist the funeral home in a variety of way but also opportunities to minister to families who have no church connection or who have no minister to conduct funeral services. I will meet with these men formally to finalize things and get answers to some questions Wednesday morning.

I’m headed to Mason, Ohio, in a little while to attend the 90th birthday celebration for the man who was the Dean of my Bible College when I was a student. It will be great to see him again and remember “old times”! It has been years since I’ve seen him.

Tomorrow after church I’m headed to the Indiana State Fair with any of my kids and grandchildren that are able to attend with me. This appears to be the perfect weekend weather-wise to attend.

posted by jim 8:35 AM 0 comments

Saturday, August 02, 2008

“IT WAS THE BEST OF TIMES, IT WAS THE WORST OF TIMES”

Most will recognize this as a quote from Charles Dickens’ “A Tale of Two Cities”. That may describe life for me right now. For many people throughout the world they would probably say that it is only the worst of times.

It doesn’t take much listening to the radio, watching t. v. or reading the newspaper to realize there is a lot of trouble, tension, violence (Indianapolis has recorded 70+ murders so far this year), and other horrible things in our world today. The stock market plunges, gasoline is truly a “pain at the pump”, banks are failing, the economy is struggling and the politicians are slugging it out. The national presidential campaign seems to be getting dirtier by the day on both sides.

Yet I am choosing to retire from my “day job” in less than a month. (August 28th is my last day of employment at the Principal Financial Group.) Some would ask, “Aren’t you afraid? Aren’t you afraid that you won’t have enough money to pay your bills? Aren’t you afraid of the economic situation of our country?”

If one chose to be fearful there are a lot of reasons. However, I’m choosing to trust in God. He has wonderfully cared for me and my family all these years. And the Bible says that He is the “….same yesterday, today and forever.” (Hebrews 13:8). So I have no reason not to trust Him and every reason and evidence to put my trust in Him.

Everything has worked so smoothly toward my retirement. Every detail seems to have been orchestrated by God. I am convinced it is His Will that I retire at this time.

Then recently I was studying God’s Word and I came across this Scripture: “Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crops fail and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls, YET WILL I REJOICE IN THE LORD, I WILL BE JOYFUL IN GOD MY SAVIOR. THE SOVEREIGN LORD IS MY STRENGTH; HE MAKES MY FEET LIKE THE FEET OF A DEER, HE ENABLES ME TO GO ON THE HEIGHTS.” (Habakkuk 3:17-19)

That Scripture spoke to me in this season of my life. So I plan to enjoy my retirement. I plan to enjoy volunteering at my church’s Welcome Desk some during the week; to enjoy other volunteer ministries at my church. I plan to enjoy my part-time employment at our local funeral home. Reading is one activity high on my list as well as other things I want to do around the house.

26 days and counting. (Who is counting? ME! See the calendar below.)

posted by jim 10:43 AM 0 comments

posted by jim 10:42 AM 0 comments