I have spent my whole life teaching students at university and serving church members. In graduate school, I taught gerontology and elderly welfare, instructing others on how to prepare for later life. Then one day, the life of the elderly that I used to teach about became my own story.

As I faced my retirement from university teaching and pastoral ministry, I asked myself:

“How shall I live the rest of my life?”

The conclusion I reached back then was simple: old age is not a time of waiting vaguely, but a time of designing and living life on one's own terms.

I consider three things to be important in the later stage of life. The first is health. It is about taking care of one's body by exercising consistently according to one's physical strength. The second is financial preparedness. It is living within one's means while wisely managing the pension prepared since youth. The third is leisure and joy.

After retirement, my wife and I travel in a camper van and encounter nature. Sometimes we visit small rural churches to share the Word, and play the saxophone to share joy with people. Beautiful scenery is recorded through photos and videos. The joy of learning new technology is also quite significant.

Of course, happiness does not come solely from special travels or ample financial abundance. Sharing a warm meal with a loved one and slowly walking down a neighborhood path to feel the changing of the seasons are more than enough to make one happy.

Looking back, what I let go of upon retirement was a title, not the meaning of life. Rather, small joys that I had failed to notice while living a busy life began to catch my eye.

No one knows the final day of our life. However, the mere fact that today has been given to us is reason enough to be grateful.

Even if life has a retirement age, gratitude has none.

Today, too, I intend to live the day granted by God with thanksgiving. And I hope that this day will be conveyed to someone as a small comfort and a warm warmth.

[ⓒ Global Economic Times. 무단전재-재배포 금지]