Most of the people who live in our island community are in the third act of their lives. They were raised somewhere else and went through whatever formal education was appropriate for them, then they worked in some sort of career, and now that their formal working days are done, they have chosen to come and live here. Some have figured out how to close out their final years of the second act while living here, and there are a few who have found a way to support themselves through the various jobs that are available on-island, but those are in the minority. For most, the prevailing idea was to retire on a bridgeless island with a slower pace of life and a beautiful beach.
What so many people seem to overlook (probably because it conflicts with the idea of a leisurely retirement spent simply enjoying the pleasures of a life lived well) is that the third act can be the most productive time in a person’s life, when a lifetime of contacts and experiences can be drawn upon to help to apply hard-earned wisdom to whatever issues need to be resolved. Unfortunately, that can sound an awful lot like work, but another way of looking at it is to consider it your unique purpose.
Moses is a phenomenal example of someone whose greatest significance wasn’t revealed until his third act. In his first act, he was raised in a royal household, given the best education available and taught how to be a leader that the people obeyed. In his second act, Moses was a shepherd, learning how to lead a flock that needed to be cared for, sacrificed for. After forty years of tending the flocks, it would be understandable if Moses simply wanted to spend his last years doing something more relaxing, but that wasn’t what God had in mind.
Moses’ third act drew upon all of the lessons and contacts that he had accumulated during the first two acts of his life. He tapped into the respect that he was given by both the Israelites and the Egyptian palace when he returned to Egypt to speak on behalf of the Israelites. He moved with boldness that came from living in royalty. Later, in the midst of trying to lead an often-disobedient Chosen People towards the Promised Land, Moses placed himself directly between God’s wrath and the people who were the target of that displeasure, just as a shepherd would stand between dangerous predators and the wayward sheep. For Moses to be the leader that Israel needed in the third act of his life, he needed to draw upon the life-shaping experiences that he had gone through in the first two acts.
Friends, God has given you a lifetime of experiences as you have gone through the first two acts of your lives, and He did that because He was preparing you for your third act. That doesn’t mean that you are supposed to spend every hour of your day trying to lead a stubborn and often-lost populace, but it likely means that your retirement is meant to include some degree of pouring into others some of what it took you a lifetime to accumulate. You know how to accomplish in one phone call what it might take someone else one month to figure out and frankly, given the state of things today, all of us would benefit from that efficiency and wisdom. All it takes is the willingness to consider that it wasn’t God’s intention that you take yourself out of the game. So, please give some thought to the idea that God has a different plan for you in this third act of your life.
Peace and blessings – Pastor Aaron