Stepping Away in Faith

Reflections on My Last Day as Facilities Manager at Age 67

There comes a day when a man walks the grounds one final time, turns in the keys, and closes a chapter that has filled nearly twelve years of his life. Today is that day for me. After almost twelve years serving as facilities manager at the Miami County fairgrounds, I am retiring. I will miss the work. More than that, I will deeply miss being around the young people who fill those grounds with energy, laughter, and life. Their presence has been one of the quiet joys of the job, and walking away from that daily contact is harder than I expected.

Yet the reason for this step is not simply the turning of a calendar page. For four years I have lived with kidney failure, spending long hours each week on dialysis while waiting for a transplant. Other health concerns have now pushed that hope further down the road. At sixty-seven, the body is speaking more loudly than the will. The Lord, in His perfect wisdom, has made it clear that the season of this particular labor is ending.

Scripture never treats the seasons of life as accidents. Ecclesiastes 3:1 declares, “To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven.” There was a time to manage buildings, oversee grounds, and work among the young people at the fairgrounds. There is now a time to step back. The same God who ordered the days of creation and the years of a man’s strength also orders the quiet closing of an earthly vocation—even when that closing is forced by illness.

The apostle Paul, writing near the end of his own race, could say with settled confidence, “I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith” (2 Timothy 4:7). He did not claim perfect health or uninterrupted strength. He claimed to have kept the faith. That is the true measure of these twelve years. Did I work as unto the Lord and not unto men (Colossians 3:23)? Did I treat the young people with patience and integrity? Did I point others, even in small ways, toward the Savior? Those questions matter more than any title or paycheck.

A man facing kidney failure and the limitations that come with it can look back and still see the Lord’s hand in both the ordinary days and the hard ones. He can also look forward without despair. Psalm 92:14 offers a promise that refuses to let illness or age write the final word: “They shall still bring forth fruit in old age; they shall be fat and flourishing.” Retirement from paid employment is not retirement from the kingdom. The same Lord who called me to diligence on the fairgrounds now calls me to a different kind of fruitfulness—perhaps in prayer, in quiet encouragement, or in simply being available when the Spirit opens a door.

On this last day, it is right to feel both gratitude and sober reflection. Gratitude for provision, for co-workers, for the privilege of working among the next generation. Reflection on whether the years were spent building wood, hay, and stubble, or gold, silver, and precious stones (1 Corinthians 3:12–13). Yet I do not stand before this final day in self-reliance. I stand in the finished work of Christ. The One who began a good work in me will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ (Philippians 1:6)—even through dialysis, even through delayed transplant hopes, even through the ache of leaving the young people behind.

So I close the door, turn in the keys, and walk into the next season not as a man whose usefulness has ended, but as a servant whose Master still has assignments. The race is not over. The fight is not finished. The faith is still to be kept—until the day the true rest comes, and the words are heard, “Well done, thou good and faithful servant… enter thou into the joy of thy lord” (Matthew 25:21).

Until that day, this last day of work is simply the first day of a new chapter written by the same faithful Author.

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DMMC 

7-19-26