Rethinking Retirement: Finishing Life for the Glory of Christ
Overview
John Piper challenges fellow baby boomers to forego the American dream of retirement and live out their golden years with a far greater purpose in mind. This powerful essay draws on personal experience and Scripture to provide an opportunity to obey God in a radical counter-cultural way.
They say it’s a person’s reward for all those years of labor. “Turn in your time card and trade in your IRAs. Let travel plans and golfcourse leisure lead the way.” But is retirement really the ideal? Or is it a series of poor options that ignore a greater purpose—and will kill a person more quickly than old age?
Interested in more? Check out the Crossway John Piper Collection (39 vols.).
Key Features
- Retirement is presented as an opportunity to worship more fully
- Gives readers insight into Piper’s own experience
- Challenges the American dream
Top Highlights
“Finishing life to the glory of Christ means resolutely resisting the typical American dream of retirement.” (Page 6)
“Perseverance is not the means by which we get God to be for us; it is the effect of the fact that God is already for us.” (Page 15)
“The key is to keep finding in Christ our highest Treasure. This is not mainly the fight to do but the fight to delight” (Page 17)
“Finishing life to the glory of Christ means finishing life in a way that makes Christ look glorious. It means living and dying in a way that shows Christ to be the all-satisfying Treasure that he is.” (Page 5)
“If we are going to make Christ look glorious in the last years of our lives, we must be satisfied in him” (Page 19)
- Title: Rethinking Retirement: Finishing Life for the Glory of Christ
- Author: John Piper
- Publisher: Crossway
- Print Publication Date: 2008
- Logos Release Date: 2014
- Pages: 32
- Language: English
- Resources: 1
- Format: Digital › Logos Research Edition
- Subjects: Retirees › Religious life; Retirement › Religious aspects--Christianity
- ISBNs: 9781433506376, 1433506378
- Resource ID: LLS:RTHNKNGRTRMNT
- Resource Type: Monograph
- Metadata Last Updated: 2022-09-30T02:49:20Z
John Piper (b. 1946) is a widely respected theologian and bestselling author who serves as founder and lead teacher at Desiring God and is chancellor of Bethlehem College & Seminary. For 33 years, Piper served as pastor of Bethlehem Baptist Church. He has authored more than 50 books, and more than 30 years of his preaching and writing are available free of charge at desiringGod.org. Piper resides in the Minneapolis area with his wife of 51 years, and has five children and 14 grandchildren.
Piper attended Wheaton College where he majored in literature and minored in philosophy. He completed his Bachelor of Divinity at Fuller Theological Seminary, where he studied under Dr. Daniel Fuller. Piper received his Doctorate in Theology from the University of Munich and taught biblical studies for six years at Bethel College.
In 1994, Piper founded Desiring God Ministries, which provides Piper’s sermons, articles, and information on titles he has authored. One of his bestsellers, Desiring God: Meditations of a Christian Hedonist, prompted the name of the ministry.
Several of Piper’s books have been Evangelical Christian Publishers Association Christian book award winners including What Jesus Demands from the World, Pierced by the Word, and God’s Passion for His Glory. The Crossway John Piper Collection (39 vols.) includes 39 titles from Piper, including Love Your Enemies and A Hunger for God. His preaching ministry of more than 30 years is available in the John Piper Sermon Archive (1980–2014).
Hear how Piper uses Logos for his Bible Study.
