Your Freedom Not to Retire
This month we’ve talked about different aspects of freedom. I found this story about Astronaut Buzz Aldrin one I simply had to pass on. Friend, author and mentor Dan Miller sent out this illustration to explain why he and his wife, Joann, were moving to Florida as a life transition that did NOT include retirement. Your Refreshed Life is about the transitions we all face throughout life and the decisions we make in the process. We are free to embrace the rich, abundant life Jesus offers…or not.
“On Sunday morning, July 20, 1969, Apollo 11 landed on the moon. Astronaut Buzz Aldrin took communion and read Jesus’s words from John 15:5. On the morning of July 21st, Neil Armstrong stepped out onto the moon’s surface, followed nineteen minutes later by Aldrin. Together they planted a flag, talked to President Nixon on their communication gear, and gathered samples from the moon’s surface. On the voyage back to earth, Aldrin broadcast his reading of Psalm 8: 3-4: “When I considered the heavens, the work of Thy hands, the moon and the stars which Thou hast ordained, what is man that Thou art mindful of him?”
“But what should have been an incredible, positive experience to prepare him for the next season of life nearly ruined him. During the three week quarantine then required of astronauts upon returning from space, Aldrin immediately began an alcohol bender that didn’t end for over nine years. His marriage of twenty-one years quickly decayed and ended, and his prestigious military career that earned him the flight privilege deteriorated and ended in disgrace. Encouraged by a therapist to take a regular job, he worked at a Cadillac dealership in Beverly Hills, where he did not make a sale in six months.
“He’s been arrested multiple times, charged with assault, now has three ex-wives and in 2018 filed suit against his three children to remove them from his social media accounts, finances, and businesses.
“How did all this happen? How could the first astronaut with a doctoral degree, a Presbyterian elder, who was so successful and brilliant as Buzz Aldrin experience such a negative shift?
“Aldrin himself gave the answer in his 2009 autobiography, Magnificent Desolation: ‘The transition from ‘astronaut preparing to accomplish the next big thing’ to ‘astronaut telling about the last big thing’ did not come easily to me……. What does a man do for an encore?’
“During the return flight from the moon, Aldrin became absorbed in negative thinking. Staring down at the tiny ball called Earth, he realized he had no next “big thing.” Nothing could top what he had just done. His future held nothing to look forward to. He had peaked at thirty-nine years old. And alcohol provided just the solution to ease the pain of that recognition.
“According to Dan Sullivan of Strategic Coach, when your ‘status’ becomes more important than your ‘growth,’ you typically stop growing. However, when growth is your ongoing motive, then status continues to increase as well. But you won’t be attracted to the status – the desire for growth draws you forward. You can walk away from a former status to create a new one.
“If you’re not completely excited about the future you see unfolding before you, then you may have a problem. If you ‘retire’ in the traditional sense, you may have just told your mind and body they are no longer important. That limited future will shrink your current identity and make you less capable of serving and contributing today.”
The pandemic has proven a difficult time of transition for all. What will your choices be? Will you take the present moment to seek God and determine His plan for your “new normal” or like Aldrin, choose the downward spiral of despair and hopelessness?
The Your Refreshed Life Team and Partners are praying you choose the first. We stand ready to help you in any way possible take the freedom that is yours and use it to choose life in all its fullness. Write or call and let us know how we can help.
