In a Disciple's World, Retirement Doesn't Exist

“Now then, just as the Lord promised, he has kept me alive for forty-five years since the time he said this to Moses, while Israel moved about in the wilderness. So here I am today, eighty-five years old! I am still as strong today as the day Moses sent me out; I’m just as vigorous to go out to battle now as I was then. Now give me this hill country that the Lord promised me that day. You yourself heard then that the Anakites were there and their cities were large and fortified, but, the Lord helping me, I will drive them out just as he said.”

Caleb served the Lord for many years of his life. Because of his obedience, the Lord granted him strength and health for the majority of his life. But instead of reaching a prefabricated age where he was now supposed to retire and enjoy the rest of his life, he believed something not many of us do—his life was not his own. Earlier in the book of Joshua, Caleb is commended for following the Lord wholeheartedly. Caleb’s vow to serve the Lord wasn’t just for a few years, but for his whole life, until the day he takes his last breath.

As Christians, we think we only have to serve the Lord during our working years—the years in which we have the energy and vitality to make money to buy a house, raise our children and acquire the goodies we think will make our lives enjoyable. But in a Christian’s world, retirement doesn’t exist. If our lives are fully devoted to God, that means our lives are too. We don’t get to decide when we stop serving the Lord; He does.

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