I love this excerpt from John Piper’s book, ‘Roots of Endurance.’ In it, he devotes a chapter on Charles Simeon, and in particular, a remarkable incident that should make one reconsider retirement.

In 1807, after twenty-five years of ministry, his health failed suddenly.
His voice gave way so that preaching was very difficult
and at times he could only speak in a whisper. After a sermon he
would feel “more like one dead than alive.” This broken condition
lasted for thirteen years, till he was sixty years old. In all
this time Simeon pressed on in his work.
The way this weakness came to an end is remarkable and
shows the amazing hand of God on Simeon’s life. “It passed away
quite suddenly and without any evident physical cause.” He
tells the story that in 1819 he was on his last visit to Scotland. As
he crossed the border he says he was “almost as perceptibly
revived in strength as the woman was after she had touched the
hem of our Lord’s garment. His interpretation of God’s providence
in this begins back before the weakness had befallen him
in 1807. Up till then he had promised himself a very active life
up to age sixty, and then a Sabbath evening. Now he seemed to
hear his Master saying:

“I laid you aside, because you entertained with satisfaction
the thought of resting from your labor; but now you have
arrived at the very period when you had promised yourself
that satisfaction, and have determined instead to spend
your strength for me to the latest hour of your life, I have
doubled, trebled, quadrupled your strength, that you may
execute your desire on a more extended plan.”

So at sixty years of age, Simeon renewed his commitment to
his pulpit and the local and global mission of the church and
preached vigorously for seventeen more years, until two months
before his death. Surely there is a lesson for us here concerning
retirement. Is there any biblical warrant for the modern, western
assumption that old age or retirement years are to be years
of coasting or easing up or playing? I am not aware of such a
principle in the Bible. In fact, it is a great sadness to see so many
older Christians adapting to this cultural norm and wasting the
last decades of their lives in innocent lounging around. Who
knows but that greater strength and health would be given if
there were resolves to move toward need and not comfort in
our old age? Who knows whether God would give awakening
and renewal if we would renew our dreams of ministry to the perishing
world and not just the “ministry” of playing with our
grandchildren?

You can read the book, for free, here.