There is much we can learn from the testimony of others. In this essay, Dr. Colin Watson reflects on God’s call on his life, even in his retirement years, and how that is bound up and sustained in worship. As you read this, reflect on your own life and ministry, but also consider how the lessons Watson speaks of are equally true of the church as it too goes through times of change.
—RW
I recently retired—or so I thought! As I practiced certain spiritual disciplines, I realized that retirement is only a transition to the next part of God’s plan and calling. We are called to worship always, and from that there is no retirement.
Thresholds and Liminal Spaces
Throughout our lives we spend a significant amount of energy being concerned about where we are going and what we want to be, whether that be a call, a job, or a vocation. Oftentimes we live as if these goals can be achieved simply by having a clear vision of where we are going and how we want to get there. But it has become apparent to me that most of life’s learning is really centered on insights we achieve as we transition from one situation or assignment to another. The lives of biblical figures include numerous seasons and some remarkable moments of transition allowed by God. For example, consider Saul’s transition into Paul, whom God used as an instrument for communicating the good news of Jesus.
The frequent changes in our lives mean that we are often living in liminal spaces—states of transition from one phase of life to the next. In psychology, a liminal space is often defined as a transitional state characterized by uncertainty, ambiguity, and change. It is a threshold between two distinct phases where we are not fully in either state..
Our unchanging God often allows us, as he did with the apostle Paul, to go through changing situations so that we can grow incrementally and develop spiritually into who God wants us to be. This is the process of sanctification, and it often occurs in the liminal spaces of change. And change continues to happen as God continues to call us to grow and to minister, even in retirement.
The Journey
My life has seen a plethora of transitions. My first deep engagement with my denomination, the Christian Reformed Church in North America (CRCNA), began with my local church, Madison Avenue Christian Reformed Church (MACRC) in Paterson, New Jersey, in the early 1980s. MACRC was and is a multicultural community in an urban setting. While serving as a ministry leader there, I also was a leader in the community and in business. Each of those roles was often complicated by the fact that in most cases I was the first Black leader in the role. My ability to cope with these pressures was strengthened by the community of believers at MACRC. This was important because even my business commitment felt like a ministry call.
Engagement with the CRCNA at the denominational level was also critically formative. It taught me what it means to worship and be in prayer continually. It began with a prayer mission to Sierra Leone in 2005, included engagement with world missions and more, and culminated in service in denominational leadership.
Through it all, the biblical stories of Jesus’ engagement with all people and his persistence in removing barriers between people created in God’s image remained indelibly fixed in my mind. Jesus describes this ministry in Luke 4 when he reads Isaiah 61 in the synagogue:
The Spirit of the Lord is on me,
because he has anointed me
to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners
and recovery of sight for the blind,
to set the oppressed free,
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.
—Luke 4:18–19
Continuous Worship
As I write this, it is the season of Lent, a time when we remember and reflect on the reality of the forty days leading up to Jesus’ crucifixion. In this time of reflection, we center ourselves and focus on what Jesus has done. Jesus embraced these liminal days with the full knowledge that he was about to make the ultimate sacrifice. He was about to decenter himself, focus on God, and allow God to do what was necessary for God’s beloved children.
In this season of Lent and throughout the whole year, as I decenter myself, my prayer is that God allows me to focus on the triune God. I pray that the Holy Spirit will push all God’s children into a new liminal space for reconnecting as we follow the primary directives for which we were created:
“‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”
—Matthew 22:37–40
Being obedient to this call requires not only our continuous prayer, but our continuous worship—the continual recognition and praise of God—as we continue to decenter ourselves and flee from idolatry and selfish desires. As John reminds us, this often means taking great care about what we love and desire:
Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in them. For everything in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—comes not from the Father but from the world.
—1 John 2:15–16
I often joke that it would be great if God’s call to us as retirees—and to me specifically—was to simply live a life of leisure with no care for the world. In my case, it would be a call to lie on the beach on a sunny day. Thankfully, this is not God’s desire for me or for us. The word “retired” is only used once in the Bible when members of the tribe of Levi, tasked with performing duties for the tabernacle, were to cease their primary function.
At the age of fifty, they must retire from their regular service and work no longer. They may assist their brothers in performing their duties at the tent of meeting, but they themselves must not do the work. This, then, is how you are to assign the responsibilities of the Levites.
—Numbers 8:25–26
Note that even in the case of the Levites, retirement meant they would instead be a resource for and helpers to the younger Levites. Therefore, what we think of as retirement God treats as a transition—in this case, from doing to teaching and assisting. I believe this is God’s call for us as well.
A Message for the Church Today
But it’s not just about what we do, but also how we do it. One of the more significant passages concerning worship in the New Testament is the story about Jesus meeting the Samaritan woman at the well. During the interaction, Jesus proclaims:
“Woman, . . . believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.”
—John 4:21–24 (emphasis added)
Jesus’ message is clear: We are to worship always, in the Spirit and in truth. The time has now come. This goes beyond episodic worship. We are to worship continually, just as we pray continually! This means that we worship when times are easy and when times are hard, in liminal spaces and in times and places where we feel completely settled. And we worship in all forms, including silence, prayer, fasting, and acts of service.
God continues to remind us that as we move between activities, calls, or positions in life, we are called to move from worship in place to worship in time and space—in the Spirit and in truth—and to worship continually. God reminds us that as we do so God will continue to be with us, even as we endure the hardships of transition. And we also have God’s promise that it is often in times of difficulty that God’s blessings are amplified:
As it is written: “For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.” No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
—Romans 8:36–39
The Christian Year reminds of of the liminal and transitional times in the life of our Savior Jesus Christ, including the moment he “resolutely set out for Jerusalem” (Luke 9:51) knowing the pain that awaited him there. Whether or not you are in a liminal season yourself, we don’t need to look far to see many in our communities and beyond experiencing hardships. But we know that God is still on the throne. God can use it all for God’s purpose. We are called to remain faithful because we know that God is present even in our sorrow and that somehow God will use it for the sake of the kingdom. When in doubt, we must return to worship—in the Spirit and in truth—in all of its dimensions. We worship not simply on Sunday mornings, but as we live the lives God has laid out for us and walk the paths that God has prepared. As we follow Jesus’ example and serve others in word and deed, the Spirit opens our eyes to see everyone we encounter with Jesus’ compassion. Our acts of service, our love of neighbors nearby and far away, are worship.
I look forward to embracing my new role of “retired Levite.” I’m especially eager to continue as a pastoral advisor and member of my local church ministry team focusing on men’s ministry and administration—work so reminiscent of my ministry decades ago. I’ve come full circle. God is faithful!
What does coming full circle look like for you? For what has God called you in such a time as this? Let’s embrace every aspect of life—every transition—and seek God’s grace and direction in every hardship through continuous worship and continuous action through God’s grace.
And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.
—Romans 8:28
Praise God, from whom all blessings flow!