Chris Holck
Provided by CN Building Adult Ministries Resource Center
Just a question for you Boomers?
There is an American proverb that says, A man’s home is his castle.” 
How do you view the home/castle that you have worked so hard for? Do you get inside, shut the garage door (pull up the drawbridge) and hunker down with everything just the way you like it? Nothing wrong with that unless you like it so much that you become reluctant to ever leave or unwilling to lower your standards when asked to give up some of those comforts for a brief time.
Is your home your Refuge?
Retirement or even the empty nest stage can tempt people who once said yes to many church, school, family and civic activities to now move into their cocoon. They can easily decide that they have “taken their turn” or “paid their dues” and now it is “their time.” So they purchase the extended cable package, learn to program their DVR, and purchase “app’s” for managing their stocks, playing Scrabble online, etc. They exercise at home, work from home, and even go to church from home.
Or is your home your Retreat Center?
If you’ve been on a retreat or to a cabin you know that very often you give up some luxuries, conveniences and technology but your spirit is replenished by simple and natural beauty, a relaxed schedule and an agenda of restoration. You had been moving at breakneck speed and needed a little time to recoup. So what if we viewed our homes in such a manner? Instead if simply living in them the majority of the year as a privileged place that you deserve and defend, we now view them as a comfortable place to rest and restore in between service opportunities.
Life is about service not selfish pleasure.
The Boomer generation has so much to give, so much skill, talent, and wisdom. It would be a huge loss to the Kingdom of Christ to just retreat to one’s castle and not share with the needy world around us. So how about an approach to the second half of life that gives at least 10% of one’s time to serving (a kind of ‘tithe of time’). Or how about reversing the formula
of one’s working years in which they worked 47-50 weeks of the year and vacationed 2 to 5? Instead, give 2 to 5 weeks per year in the form of wholehearted service while still maintaining the 47-50 weeks for the pursuit of personal agenda? There would still be plenty of time to enjoy home and the pleasures we look forward to.
Think of what you could do with this new plan. You now venture out of your retreat home to mentor at a public school or volunteer at a mission in the inner city. Or you could invest 10 days, or possibly 2 to 5 weeks on the other side of the world giving of yourself to others, sharing the gifts and talents and resources with which you’ve been blest. And after this time of service that removed you from your comfort zone, placing you in your gifted sweet spot, you retreat to your home that is inviting and restful. And when you are rested up, you go and serve some more.
That rhythm of life lines up with an inner desire to give back, make a difference, leave a legacy and simply put, to serve. And it makes sense when the world around you is filled with so many who need what you have to offer.
I considered making my byline “Refuge or Rest Home,” but decided that the most common image of a rest home made for a bad choice of words. I didn’t want to conjure the image of a rest home or even an independent living community. That is a long way off. We hope! Boomers will live longer and healthier than any generation ever has, having been endowed with a life and lifestyle that no generation has ever experienced. What will you do with what you’ve been given? Hopefully, you will lower the drawbridge toyour castle (or open the garage door), step away from the remote and the mouse, and let your
home be a welcoming place for those who need refreshment. Then when you leave your comfortable cottage and serve long enough and hard enough, you will appreciate all the more the blessing of a restful haven when you come back home again.