Learn, Earn and Return - An article written for the St A's Parish Window in October of 2013

When I was younger, I built quite an extensive library of audio cassette tapes that contained music and sporting events that I recorded on my home recording system.  I spent a lot of time assembling the labeling and catalog system to keep them all those tapes organized.   Each tape was housed in its own uniform-looking "sleeve" that displayed the tape number on the outside.  I had created a large supply of these sleeves and numbered every one of them, not only for already produced tapes, but for future needs as well.  Given the pace that I was filling blank tapes with content, surely I was going to need at least double or triple the number of sleeves as I had recorded tapes to accommodate the many years of cassette taping ahead of me - or so I thought.

Two things that I didn't account for was, 1) Listening to audio via cassettes would be a technology that would quickly become obsolete to the point where you can't find that stuff in the stores any more.  But even more so, and more to my point here, 2) I didn't account for the change that would occur in me over the years.  Even if the technology would somehow still be state-of-the art today, there's no way that you'd find me today age 55, absorbed with this type of recreational activity.  Like most people, I am an entirely different creature than I was 30 years ago, with different goals and aspirations.

It's important to embrace our past and the present - they are both gifts from God.  But we need to account for the ways God will continue to gift us in the future.  Each season of life brings with its own blessings. If we live faithfully, our lives follow a pattern where the main focus goes from learning, to earning, to returning. 

Learning! When we're young, our focus is on exploring our talents, discovering God's purpose for our lives, and sharpening our skills.  The exact timing of this period is not important; what matters is understanding that there's a season where learning and growth are our primary objectives, and that we shouldn't take short cuts to financial gain and miss the big picture God has in mind for us.

Earning! Obviously, our profession impacts our earning power.  For many of us, the season when our earning is most effective occurs in our 30's, 40's and 50's.  During this time, we strive to take care of our families, stabilize our "cash flow", and prepare for the future.

Returning! If we've honored God, worked hard and planned well, we enter this most rewarding season.  This when we get to experience the joy of giving back.  We might interpret this "giving back" as primarily monetary in nature but it also includes our time and talents as well.  Dr. Martin Luther King gave us words to live by in this regard when he said, "Life's most persistent and urgent question is 'what are we doing for others?'"

In the third chapter of Ecclesiastes, we are told that "there is an appointed time for everything, and a time for every affair under the heavens."  And that "there is a time to seek, a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away."  

If someone were to ask me when I was 25, if I had plans to become a deacon when I became eligible (eligibility begins at age 35), my response would have been, "I'm not sure.  First, let me know what a deacon is and then I'll let you know how I feel about it."

While we tend to migrate through this natural progression of these three stages (learning, earning and returning), each of these three types of activities can take place at any age.  I'm inspired when I see young people give of their time to give back to the Church and community at events like the Day of Service and other ways that are apparent by looking at other sections of this newsletter authored by our young people.  And also I'm inspired by our more senior parishioners who have an unquenchable thirst for learning more to enhance their skills and become better Christians.  But, at the same time, its tragic to witness those that get themselves "parked" in one season of life, with little or no allowance in mind for God's provision in the future.

So, my prayer for you is that you'll be encouraged, not to be defined by your past, but to be prepared by it.  Remember that today, like every other day, didn't come to stay - it came to pass. In James 4:14, it says, "You have no idea what your life will be like tomorrow.  You are a puff of smoke that appears briefly and then disappears."  Be prayerfully and patiently focused on God's will, and be confident that where God's plan will take you will be both rewarding for yourself and life giving to those around you!