As an adult-onset athlete, I've come to love sports. I can't wait to watch the weekend NFL games. But I also see a danger in ESPN-ing one's way through life. That danger is the pervasiveness of spectating in American culture. Too few translate what they admire on TV into their own lives.
I was once like that. Today, however, I realize I was made by my Creator to move. I can no longer be a bystander. Fitness is a big part of my life. Just as God created me to achieve educational and publishing goals, I must now achieve the athletic goals he has designed for me.
All this, of course, defies logic. My culture tells me that retirement is meant for comfort and ease. You win, the experts agree, if the game of aging is played by watching The Late Show and then going to bed. The athlete knows this to be wrong. The unbiblical concept of "retirement" has made us prisoners of an artificial construct. You will look in vain for the idea of retirement in the Scriptures. "Retire, and we will give you a gold watch," says the world. But the Bible states that the elderly "still bear fruit in old age. They are full of sap and green" (Psalm 92:14). We are to age with purpose. We are to remain active in serving God, mentoring the youth, and guiding others in the faith. As the life of Moses illustrates, God can call individuals to significant tasks regardless of their age.
The aging saint, for all his talk of heaven and the afterlife, knows that all of time is right now, and he must choose and continue to choose to reject the temptation to "retire." No saint, Old Testament or New, was content with what he accomplished yesterday. Can day-to-day living provide that? Can mundane life become a Super Bowl? It can if you realize that everything you do is of consequence.
I know that eventually the baton will leave my hands permanently. But until then, I have a weight to lift, a mountain to climb, a race to run.