2nd Month in "Retirement"

I joked with my former employers that I looked forward to retirement and writing books. This time I am serious though I do not want to close the door for a possible ministry appointment if only it suits everyone, not just me but my wife and the whole community concerned. I am in a hurry but I am not in a hurry if there is such paradox in Christian life. I have done this for almost 30 years now and I am justified to feel I deserve some rest or even retire for good. One has to choose the right moment for retirement as too many people stay too long in their ministry or positions until people who meet them say they look haggard or simply too old or have stayed too long in one job. I have never been in such a situation as the longest I have served in one place is 6 years in Singapore.

Although I have been with my one denomination in Sabah here, but I have moved around with 6 different appointments in 23 years before I joined a local Seminary for just one year, in fact after less than 5 months in October last year I already handed in my resignation. I am not for prolonging the obvious and whether a place is suitable or not if one is in his late 50s, for sure it should take only months, not years to find out. 

I am quick to move, only if I felt the Lord's leading. It was not for nothing my first English memoirs was named "Departure Points" published 5 years ago. I am writing a Malay version now but a brand new edition, nothing much is retained in the English version except for some major roles I played which must be recorded. Even the photos that will be put inside the book will be 90 percent new and I only chose about 5 or 5 photos from my English book, though 95% of the buyers will read the Malay version first time as most of those whom I serve do not read English, so very few people in my denomination have read my book (perhaps only about 100 copies sold to SIB members and many more copies sold to outsiders including those in Singapore). 

But in the second month of my "retirement" I feel at peace with myself and with the world, by the grace of God. If there is a home on earth, I have returned to it and do not have to travel from one place to another. Now I am staying put in the Lord's inheritance, a gift from God. "A man can have nothing except given to him from heaven" (John 3) or as Paul says, "why should you boast since it is all given [by God] to you?" to the Corinthian church. In my 2nd month out of active service, I plan to focus solely in writing and hoping to finish this current project in a month or two before moving on. As for me, I have never felt the need to have a letter of appointment by men to serve a living God who has saved me, appeared to me in numerous visions first during my conversion and many times since and called me into His service. If they should claim to be servants of Christ, I am much more by God's grace.