“By all means let’s retire from employment, slow down, and take time to enjoy the life that God gives. But let’s keep fulfilling our garden identity by working in God’s world and serving according to our capacity and circumstances. That enduring work of ours is a thank offering for Christ’s work for us and in expectation of the eternal rest to come when he returns.
There is a time to recognise that we will lay down our labours and surrender to rest (2 Tim 4:6-8). However, many in the western world seem to confuse retirement from employment with retirement from work and seek to enter that rest too early.
The last word is John Piper’s. At the end of a book on retirement he says: Here is my prayer for retirement – Lord, spare me this curse!”