Is this retirement?

"So, Miss Careen, what do retired people do?"

The question struck me as odd, because the one asking it was the person who has helped me in our home for the past ten years, since I "retired." I started thinking...was she asking because she apparently doesn't see me doing anything, or is it because we stay so busy she doesn't realize I've retired from something?

I'm trying to find the answer to the question. Let's see, the past ten days, here's what I've done:

A week ago this past Thursday, Pops and I drove to Macon and babysat our three grandchildren so Clint and Helen could have a night out. It was their first "date" since the new baby, Hartley, had been born. We entertained Harrison and Hannah (more accurately, they entertained us), fed them supper, and rocked little Hartley until the parents returned, then we drove home around midnight.

Friday was a rest day! Then on Saturday, I visited with our youngest son Josh, his wife Jenny and their new baby, Molly (two weeks old), who live across the highway. I helped Jenny entertain an out-of-town guest who had come to see the new baby. Pops spent the morning on the tractor spraying food plots for the deer, and the afternoon playing 18 holes of golf with our middle son Jed, who was down from Atlanta. His expressed purpose in coming was to take me on a date! We hadn't had any fun time together lately, so he wanted to do it. We went to dinner at The Trellis restaurant in Americus, the nicest place in town. I enjoyed every minute of the time we spent in conversation. Sunday, it was church and lunch at Josh and Jenny's. The remainder of the week was filled with three workouts at the gym, two Bible studies, sharing meals with the new parents, counseling a young woman Burt met in Cracker Barrel one morning, who came and spent the night in our guest house.

On Friday of last week, I had an unexpected call from Lila, our almost-four granddaughter, who was at the beach with her family. She wanted to know if I wanted to come to the beach and "sleep with her in the big bed." I wasn't too keen on sharing the bed with Lila, but joining them at Watercolor, I could do! So Pops and I left the next day and came down, and here we are! We'll go home tomorrow and get geared up for the expected influx of guest that will come during hunting season.

So what is all this saying? If our time was spent looking for entertainment for ourselves, I can't imagine how bored we'd be. The fact is, we never know what surprises God has for us every morning. We get calls about serious prayer requests, unexpected guests staying overnight in the guest house or the carriage house, and repeated opportunities to share with people daily, the goodness of God that has graced our lives.

Retirement for us simply means we don't go to the same work place every day. It means we are free agents, ready to be used by the Lord to be blessings to others whenever the Holy Spirit taps us on the shoulder and puts us in the game. The days we have nothing to do are almost non-existent, but we figure we worked for forty years for this moment of availability.