A Retirement Prayer

Father, the last day has come and gone. The desk is cleared, the goodbyes are said, and Monday morning belongs to me now. It feels stranger than I expected.

Thank You for the working years — all of them, the thousands of days. Thank You for the paychecks that fed a family, the colleagues who became friends, the problems solved and the things built, even the hard seasons that taught me endurance. You were faithful through every one. The work mattered, Lord. Thank You for letting me do it.

Now teach me who I am without the title. I was never really the job — I know that in my head. Help my heart catch up. I am still Your child, still Your worker, just reassigned.

So I'm reporting for the new assignment. Show me what these years are for: the grandchildren, maybe. The neighbor. The church. The slow mornings I never got to have. The wisdom I can finally give away for free. Keep me useful, keep me curious, keep me kind. And let the best work of my life turn out to be still ahead.

In Jesus' name, Amen.

When to Pray This

Pray this in the first strange weeks after retiring, or on the eve of the last day. It also makes a meaningful blessing to read aloud at a retirement dinner. If the freedom feels more like loss than gift right now, pray it anyway — the next assignment often takes a while to appear.

A Verse to Hold On To

"And let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us: and establish thou the work of our hands upon us; yea, the work of our hands establish thou it." — Psalm 90:17 (KJV)